Last night's movie was The Butterfly Effect. I'd love to give you a review, but unfortunately, I didn't make it through the movie. I found it confusing and disturbing and turned it off early. If it had only been confusing, I would have hung in there because it was confusing in an intriguing way, and I believe, that's what the director was shooting for--to have the audience wondering what was going on. However, I found aspects of this movie so incredibly disturbing to me personally, that I shut it off. I lasted until the little psycho kid was going to burn another kid's dog alive. On top of the other stuff that had already happened, that was too much for me.

However, I was intrigued enough to want to know what the heck was going on and I did a search online. I found a great Movie Spoiler Site and it explained everything that happened in a concise way.

Anyway, I found the premise for the movie intriguing from reading the spoiler, however, the execution didn't work for me. People who don't mind dark, grim and disturbing might like it, but I give it 1 star.

On a more fun note, I was reading Leiha's blog this morning and she had a link up to a cool Avatar Generator website, so of course, I had to create my own.

Notice the jacket and the hat--it's winter--and the laptop and coffee cup are perfect for writers. At least this writer. Caffeine is my friend and the laptop has become part of my body. :-) Leiha has more cool examples of avatars up on her blog for today.

Speaking of perfect for writers, a while back, Joely Sue blogged about a Demotivator poster that was absolutely spot on. Sorry, I'm too lazy to actually look up the post and link directly to it. :-) I finally went over to Despair.com and ordered it. Here's a link to the poster. For those of you feeling lazy like I do, it shows a Mayan temple (at least I believe it's Mayan) and it says in large letters: Sacrifice. Then below that, it says: "All we ask here is that you give us your heart." If that isn't the most perfect poster ever for a writer, I don't know what is.

The power went out at 4am this morning. I know because I sleep with an air cleaner on and the sudden silence woke me up. Of course, I didn't have a flashlight handy, but I figured I better call this in so that I can have power back by the time I wake up for real on Sunday morning. I managed to find a battery-powered mini lantern and I found the phone number for outages. A transformer was smoking, they said, and they'd have it fixed by 9am. I went back to sleep--tried to anyway--the air cleaner came back on at 5:15. Yea!

Made good progress on my edits yesterday and I'll finish the first run today. I'm fixing all the small stuff and tagging the stuff I need to think about or that will require time to work on. After I finish the first run, I'll hit these bigger items.

I was thinking about contests yesterday (the kind for writers) and realized that I preferred to judge the Golden Heart more than the Rita. Part of it is because there isn't as much reading to do. It takes a lot less time to read 55 pages than it takes to read an entire book. But the biggest reason is how exciting it is to read an unpublished writer who leaves you wishing you could read the entire book. I've had this happen to me several times in my years as a judge and I buzz with enthusiasm for days afterward.

I don't judge as many contests as I used to, I can't because it takes too much time and I don't have much to spare. I've only judged one chapter contest in 2006, and BTW, didn't receive a single thank you note from any of my entries. See My Post about how important it is to send thank you notes to your contest judges.

One of the reasons I list in this post is that published judges appreciate the thank you notes--I haven't heard one that said she didn't care. But I'll tell you another reason, one I don't believe I ever posted here before.

I judged a bunch of contests in 2005, and in one of them, I read an entry I thought was fabulous. I also happened to read it right before RWA National, and when I had dinner with my editor and we started talking, I brought it up. I know we're not supposed to talk about these things, and I normally don't, but I thought my editor would really like the story, and from my description, she did. She wanted to request a partial. When I got home, I sent her the name of the entry and the contest coordinator's email. I found out later, when I asked my editor about this, that the contest coordinator not only wouldn't give my editor the entrant's name, but apparently wouldn't pass a message along to the entrant either. The entry didn't final in this contest, so I couldn't get her name that way, and if the writer sent me a thank you note, she didn't mention the title of her story so I had no way to know if I heard from her or not. If she'd sent a thank you and mentioned the title of her entry, I would have passed the info along to my editor.

So lesson one: Send a thank you note. I spend hours judging every entry, you can spend 3 minutes to write me a note. Lesson two: Mention the name of your entry and the contest. That year I'd happened to judge two or three contests around the same time and all in the same state, so the postmarks didn't give me a clue.

Just think, if this writer had sent a thank you note with the title of her entry and I passed her name on to my editor what might have happened. At the very least, she (or he) lost a great opportunity.

I figured out that my post about calendars from this morning was boring. Sorry about that. When I'm tired, I lose perspective. Here's a quiz, though, and hopefully, that will make up for it.

Your New Year's Resolutions

1) Get a pet iguana 2) Eat more cotton candy 3) Travel to Alaska 4) Study abnormal psychology 5) Get in shape with surfing

What Should Your New Year's Resolution Be?

I overslept again this morning. Sigh. Worse than yesterday and that's why this is posting later. I was working on edits and didn't get to bed till after 11pm. They were going so well, I hated to stop, but I knew I'd pay the price today--and I am.

Last night, I had a spend $40, save $10 coupon from Barnes & Noble, and since I needed wall and desk calendars, I decided to check out if they were on sale online. I confess, I wait till they're 50% off to buy. I was planning to hit BN this weekend, but if I could avoid a trip to the mall, that's a good thing. Luckily, most of the calendars were marked down.

The wall calendar ended up being really easy. The featured item had pictures of the Greek isles and the images were gorgeous! Usually, I go with Scotland or Ireland and last year I had New Orleans (proceeds of the calendar went to Katrina relief), but this year I wanted something different. Greece is definitely different.

The desk calendar was a little more difficult to pick out. I usually go with the French Impressionists, but again, I wanted something different. I found a really cool Japanese art calendar and I was going to order it, but the description didn't say whether or not it's spiral-bound. I want my desk calendar to be spiral so I couldn't risk ordering it. I went with one of Italy instead.

Then, to make up my $40, I picked up the Lonely Planet guide to Tahiti and French Polynesia. (Yes, my Polynesian heroine is still hanging around, but she won't talk to me until I'm ready to work on her story. A good thing, too, since I have to concentrate on Creed and Maia.) Lonely Planet has fab pictures (I have their guides to Australia and Ireland already) and good info and it's a research book. I was all set now to check out.

My Italy desk calendar was out of stock. Sigh. I had to pick a new one. (I wish they would have told me that before I was ready to buy!) I dithered a little, but finally went with a Zen calendar. I haven't been meditating the way I should lately, so hopefully the pictures and text will encourage me.

The Zen calendar, though, was cheaper than Italy and now I didn't have $40. I had to find $5 somewhere. I almost bought a Lonely Planet guide to another part of Polynesia, but didn't want to spent that much money when I don't know my heroine's (or hero's) heritage for sure. Polynesia covers a lot of ground. I ended up going with a Susan Andersen book that I'd missed earlier this summer. Susan Andersen has been a must-buy author for me since Baby, I'm Yours and I read Head Over Heels so many times, I had to buy a second copy. This new one (the title escapes me) has another showgirl heroine and Andersen does them so well. If I only had time to read...

I also discovered a textbook on Polynesian Mythology. It was $75. Gah! But I actually found it at the publisher's website for half price--new edition must be coming out--so I'm going to order it from there. It sounds like it's exactly what I'm looking for.

The weather yesterday ended up being much ado about nothing, but it was nice to have extra time to drive into work. It's amazing how much calmer I am when I don't have to rush.

I have to be brief this morning. I looked out the window and the deck is wet and some of it is freezing so the roads could be icky. Again. Sigh.

I'm over 1000 blog posts here now. That's pretty darn cool because when I started this, I wasn't sure I'd stick with it. I had all kinds of diaries as a kid that were started and dropped within a matter of weeks. I even had a 5 year diary where there was only room for a short paragraph about the day and I couldn't even keep up with that. I'm better on the computer, I guess. :-) Or at least more prolific.

One of the things that always interests me is the stats on the blog. I can see what search terms people are using to find my blog. Right now, I'm getting a plethora of hits for "Golden Heart Judge." I mentioned getting my entry packet a couple of weeks ago. I'll also mention when I'm done judging, but that will be all I say about the contest, so I'm not quite sure why it's worth searching. There will be no mention of any particular entry, not by title or by subject matter and I'm sure other judges will be just as mum.

I also get a lot of hits for "how to hang a scarf valance." Some vindication since I'm clearly not the only one who's had a huge amount of trouble getting those damn things up. I have a picture from a catalog of two scarf valances swagged across a curtain rod exactly how I want to put mine up so it is possible to do it. Just apparently not by me.

I've gotten hits on oven smoke and on how to hang a bifold closet door. See? I'm not the only one with household issues/disasters. :-) And hits because of the television commercials I've talked about.

What's also interesting is the things I don't get any hits on. Like my movie reviews. :-) You'd think someone would be searching for movies, wouldn't you? Oh, well, I'm certainly no Roger Ebert when it comes to this, so probably it's just as well.

I have to run.

My parents have some of the Dean Martin Celebrity Roasts on video and we watched the one where Johnny Carson was the man of the week on Christmas. As they introduced the people on the dais, I'm thinking: He's dead, he's dead, he's dead, she's dead, he's dead, etc. For the ones that were still living, I was like, wow, he looks so young! There was only one person on the stage that had me going: Who the heck is that? It was some blonde woman and I don't remember her name.

Mostly, the show held up fairly well. There were some jokes that just weren't funny any longer, but Bob Newhart was still very funny and George Burns. Rich Little did all of Johnny's mannerisms and that was hilarious too because then Johnny stopped trying to do any of those gestures. BTW, whatever happened to Rich Little? I haven't seen anything about him in ages.

Overall, it was a nice, relaxing Christmas and spending an hour watching Dean Martin is no hardship even if he was older during this show. Have I mentioned this crush I developed on Dino when I was 9? I saw a movie called Artists and Models and fell madly in love with the man. Of course, I had no concept of how old that movie was or how old Dean was, but I still enjoy watching his movies and shows and listening to him sing Baby, It's Cold Outside.

I received my author copies of Shards of Crimson yesterday afternoon. Hurrah! This might be the first time these arrived before I've found the book in the store. Of course, I'm giving the mall a wide berth right now anyway because I don't do crowds. The first thing I did was check my dedication/acknowledgment page because I didn't get to proof that with the story. The second thing I did was check a few spots in the book that I'd wanted changed from the galley. The three changes I checked on were all made--whew! If I could have remembered the others, I would have checked on those too, but my memory isn't that good and I was too lazy to dig out the copy I made of the galley.

Speaking of Shards, there's still time to enter the Super-Deluxe Crimson City Action Pack Contest! Lots of cool prizes. You can check it out on the Contest Page of my website.

Carolyn: I'll try remembering your sentence for affect and effect. It might help. But my problem isn't when it's something that's fairly straightforward--at least I don't think it is. :-) Although I suppose if I could figure out if the way I'm using it is a noun or a verb, that might help me.

I read through my copy edits this weekend and had affect/effect marked a couple of times in the manuscript. I'm not surprised. No matter how hard my teachers drilled me, I never got it. Not in high school, not in college and not now. I know that I don't get it and I even copied a piece out of a book and posted it on the wall so that I'd be able to reference it easily. Unfortunately, I get more confused after reading it, so I've decided to just go with what feels right. Either that or I rewrite the sentence so I don't have to use that word. :-)

I didn't see this marked, but another one I have a huge problem with is lie/lay/laid/lain and any derivation of this word. This is one of those cases where I'm always wrong. Whichever option I choose, the other one is right. You'd think I could just go with the opposite then and that would take care of it, but the few times I've tried this, I was actually right originally and switching made me wrong. Again, I try to rewrite to avoid this series of words.

As I went through the manuscript, I learned that a while isn't always two words. I thought it was. This will now become another rule I don't understand, right there with: into/in to, anymore/any more and onto/on to. What I do in these instances is pick one way to write the word(s) and do it throughout. :-) Consistency is key, right?

Then there's my comma usage. Blame this one on journalism school. We had it drilled into (one word) our heads to never, ever put a comma before the word and unless it's part of a clause, that it's completely unnecessary. This I learned well and to this day it bugs the hell out of me to see a comma in this position. So of course, at both my publishers they stick commas before the word and and I have to grit my teeth and say, yeah, okay, most people didn't go to J School. But the overabundance of commas drives me insane. Of course, I also have a habit of leaving out other commas or putting them in where they don't belong and this has nothing to do with college. I've had several comments over the years about my "interesting" use of this punctuation mark.

What can I say? I try. My teachers tried. I remember week after week of diagramming sentences and being drilled in grammar. I think I need a refresher course or something. Of course, it's unlikely that this would help with affect/effect or lie/lay/laid/lain, etc, but there's always hope.

For those of you who celebrate, Merry Christmas! Have a peaceful and joyous holiday!

Sorry, I can't resist.

Your Christmas Song Is

Happy Xmas (War Is Over) And so this is xmas For weak and for strong For rich and the poor ones The world is so wrong You would gladly give up all of your material Christmas gifts... If it meant peace for a few more people

What Christmas Carol Are You?

It's movie review Sunday and this week I saw The Five People You Meet In Heaven. This was originally a made for TV movie a couple of years ago and I saw it then, but it's better without commercials. :-)

In this movie, the hero, Eddie, is a maintenance worker at Ruby Pier, an amusement park. On his 83rd birthday, one of the rides breaks, and in an attempt to rescue a little girl from a falling car, he's killed. He meets five people in heaven, each of whom had his or her life touched by Eddie in some way. And along the way, he discovers things he didn't know about what really happened. I don't want to go into too much detail, so I'll stop here.

This movie is one I recommend highly. It looks at how one life can touch another's and how we might not realize the impact we have. This is a movie that if you think about it for a while, there are deeper layers than what's obvious. It's not a main thread, but one of the pieces is that our view of our lives is narrow and we can't see the big picture, but as we go through Eddie's five people with him, we find out things about his life and how it fit into a bigger reality than he knew. For example, with his father. Eddie thought he knew how the man had died, but he was wrong. He was seeing his father through his misconceptions and it wasn't until he saw what had really happened that he was able to look beyond it to the man his father really was--a man with both good and bad traits.

Another interesting facet that's never addressed directly is karma. Because of something Eddie did as a young man, he had a karmic debt to pay. He didn't even realize he was paying it, he simply believed his life had been a waste because he worked at this amusement park fixing rides, but with his last person, he found out differently.

This movie is a tearjerker and also very meaningful and deeply touching. It's based on a book of the same name by Mitch Albom. (BTW, Netflix misspelled his name and this is a NYT bestselling author. Gah!) I haven't read it, but if the movie is this good, I can't help but wonder how great the book must be.

My rating: 5 stars.

FYI, if you tried to access my blog today and got a message to check back later, it's because I was switching to the new blogger. It was being beta tested, but now it's officially available and it's supposed to have some cool new features including labels for each post, which is something I've wanted for a while.

So welcome to my blog on the new blogger. Probably, there won't be too much of a difference, but if you see something out of the ordinary, this is why. (And I'm still trying to figure everything out.)

I'm reading a great book right now! It's called The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. This book is for anyone who wants to pursue something be it writing, painting, working out or whatever, and has found excuses to delay doing anything. It really resonated strongly for me and I can't find enough good things to say about it.

Mr. Pressfield talks about Resistance being the root cause of why we procrastinate or sabotage ourselves to keep from pursuing our life's work, our need to create, our self-betterment. I'm only on page 33, but I want to send this book to about half a dozen people and say "READ THIS!"

This is probably the worst review you'll ever see for a book and I probably should wait until I finish it because I'm only in the section which is defining what Resistance is and how it manifests itself. Ways to combat it are coming later, but I'm honestly hugely excited about this work and I want to tell everyone about it now!

The book is broken up into really small sections so you can read it a little at a time, which is what I've been doing--a minute here, a minute there. What I've read so far as hit me as Truth and I've found myself nodding my head in agreement as I read. I've also laughed out loud, not just because the author was trying to be funny (although he has been in places), but because some of this is either stuff I've done myself or stuff I've seen other people do.

If you know anyone who's expressed an interest in starting something that calls to them and you see them make a gazillion excuses to avoid doing it, tell them about this book. I'm not getting any money or other consideration for blogging about this book--I'm just so freaking excited about it that I can't not talk about it. It's probably the best book for creativity and writing that I've ever read (and I'm only 33 pages into it!).

I'll probably mention it again, so beware. :-)

I'm having a lazy morning so far. I slept way late and can't seem to find any desire to move. I'll have to soon, though, because it's already noon and I'm starting to feel like a slug. I got my edits for In the Midnight Hour yesterday so I'll be doing that for the next little while. I need to rework two scenes in this book (I talked to my editor about it), so I do have a little writing to do, but mostly it will be left-brained stuff which is good for the end of the day.

Okay, I'm home from work. The commute in this morning wasn't too bad, actually. I left the house about 15 minutes early and I punched in about 10 minutes early so it only took 5 minutes longer. Have I mentioned lately how much I hate snow? :-)

So a week or two ago, there was a discussion on one of the published authors loops that I'm on and it was depressing as all get out. The gist of it was that an author will fade into obscurity if she only has one book a year released. Herein lies the title of this post. While I work a full time job, I can't write much faster than I currently am (I already have no life and little sleep) and that amounts to one book a year or so. As long as I only release one book a year, I can't earn enough money to support myself. However, until I can support myself writing, I can't afford to quit the EDJ. The EDJ pays the bills and it has health insurance. Catch-22.

If I were married to a man who earned enough to cover the necessities (like mortgages and internet bills) and who had health insurance, it would all be simple. Unfortunately, I support myself.

Maybe if I wrote shorter books (I always turn in stories that are 60-100 pages over what I'm required by contract) I could squeeze more in, but then I'd feel like I wasn't giving my stories enough room to unfold, that the characters wouldn't have enough time to change and grow. And honestly, I have little control over the length. When I wrote Power of Two, I had a 4 month deadline and three plots I was weaving together through that story. I sweated and sweated making that deadline, so when I had a 4.5 month deadline for Through a Crimson Veil, I realized I couldn't manage a complicated plot that would go 460 pages like TPOT did. My "simple" story came in at 463 manuscript pages--exactly as long as TPOT to the page.

I'm mostly over the depression now. I've accepted I can't write 8 books a year like one of the authors on the loop or even three or four like so many of the others. Not while I work full time, at least. I just keep reminding myself of Jenny Crusie's RWR article where she talks about how writers are rats swimming for an island. I'm still treading water.

I have to post really fast this morning because we had snow and rain yesterday. It was mostly sloppy going home Thursday, although there were some slippery spots, but now it's had time to freeze overnight and the drive in should be ever so much fun. I hope those people who wanted a white Christmas are happy now since I've already had one awful commute and it looks like I'm going to have two more--it's supposed to snow and rain again today. Gah! To think positively, at least it wasn't as bad as Colorado.

Both Amazon and BN.com show Shards of Crimson in and shipping in 2-3 days. This is not only two weeks early (as usual), but during the holiday rush where people don't have time to think about books. I also have nightmares of trucks loaded with copies of the anthology trapped in Colorado and the whole west coast not getting the book in. Yes, writers are neurotic and we have active imaginations.

And I have to go now because I need to leave the house way early. Grumble.

You Are a Practical Gift Giver

Your gifts are useful, appropriate, and custom tailored to each person. In your opinion, the best gifts are gifts that someone will actually use. Your gifts may not be the most glamourous, but they are always appreciated.

What Kind of Gift Giver Are You?

Yesterday was our holiday party day at work, which basically means potluck lunch for our floor. This year a lot of people participated which made it better than in years past when hardly anyone took part. Of course, we didn't come close to touching the amount of food that fifth floor brought in last week, but then I think they have much larger numbers taking part than we do. Oh, well. It's a nice break from the ordinary.

After lunch, at 1:07 while I was fighting to keep my eyes open, Loud Vendor Guy wheeled his laptop in. Sigh. Between the sound of the rolling laptop case and the loud way he walks, I can hear him as soon as he turns into the main hallway. Turns out, though, that I got an early Christmas present--LVG has a new job! In Raleigh-Durham! That should be far enough away that I don't have to listen to him. :-) One loud, obnoxious man down, one loud obnoxious man to go.

That big huge storm in the middle of the country is supposed to ruin my weather today. I went to bed early last night so I could get up early today and give myself extra driving time. This really is irritating. Can't I ever have one Christmas without expletive deleted snow on the ground? I tell you, white Christmas is highly overrated. Oh, sure, if it snowed like today and was gone by January 2nd and never snowed again, I'd probably agree with the people saying snow for Xmas, but this is Minnesota. Any snow we get now will likely still be on the ground in March! Nope, I'm dreaming of a brown Christmas and wishing really, really hard that the horrible storm stay south of me.

Today, though, is solstice. I love solstice! It means the days will start getting longer again. Oh, sure, it'll take months before it starts getting dark so early, but man, it's a huge relief to hit this day. I have a friend who lives in Anchorage who totally understands how I feel about this day. I think the two of us are the most excited out of our group, but hey, we both live north. :-)

My parents went shopping yesterday and came home with two oddly shaped massage things--one for my mom and one for me. They're supposed to be really good at relieving headaches, but the thing looks like some kind of spaceship for inch-tall Martians. I did give it a try yesterday and darn, it did feel good. The only thing is the way it vibrates makes me hand feel all tingly and weird.

The second thing occurred to me a couple of hours after I used it. These things were loose and had a sticker on them saying "Try Me." What if someone with lice or scalp lesions or something else gross used it first and then I rolled that thing all over my head? Ewwww! I wonder if Lysol wipes will take care of icky germs on the plastic feet?

I just saw that commercial for you're the TV boss where the woman tells the mafia guys (The Sopranos?) that she's blocking them because she doesn't want her kids exposed to the violence. Um, where'd she get that skirt? I know, I shouldn't be focused on that, but it's horrible, stripes in a V-pattern. Where'd they find this thing? A 1970s retro clothing store? You know, it's not like I care about fashion, but hideous is hideous and even I can pick that out. Some things, like avocado green stoves and V-pattern striped skirts should never be resurrected. It's bad enough they existed once.

Yesterday, I sent an email to one of my writing buddies. In it, I was talking about the heroine from the WIP and she pointed out how many times I used the heroine's sister's name (Ryne was my previous heroine). She's right, I used it a gazillion times in our note and I define Maia in contrast to Ryne all the time in my head and when I'm emailing about her. I wonder if that's part of the reason why I'm fighting with this book so much--I'm more interested in my other characters still? My friend challenged me to write this next chapter without using Ryne's name and she's right, Maia should be the star of her own story. I'm just not quite sure how to divorce myself from Ryne. It's not like I can tell her and Deke to go away because I need them around until I do edits and galleys. I did decide to finish Maia's character sketch. I started one for her after I did Creed's, but I never filled out much. Maybe this will help yank my head out of the previous story.

I received my Golden Heart judging packet yesterday. Five entries to read and I have until March 1st, I believe. That's the only thing I really looked at was when I needed to be finished. I'll examine everything more closely when I get ready to start reading. I've got my fingers crossed that I don't have a bunch of time travels. I can judge them fairly, but they're my least favorite part of the paranormal category.

I've been wondering why when years ago, I used to read every single one that came out and I decided that was part of the problem--I read too many and some of them weren't good. And two, time travel is hard to write. A lot of times, it just feels clumsy to read and it's the same general stuff all the time. Hero or heroine (usually heroine) put on a magical (cursed) dress (or something else if it's the hero) and gets sent back in time. Of course, the character never ever believes they've time traveled and they accuse everyone of being part of an elaborate hoax complete with actors, costumes and sets. (Yeah, my friends always spend thousands of dollars to pull off a joke.) The character who's traveled in time then proceeds to fall in love with their look-alike relative's spouse who hates the person they replaced because she's a horrible bitch and the heroine (or sometimes hero) decides to stay in the past without running water, electricity, computers, hair dryers, hot running water, etc, all in the name of true love.

After reading the paragraph I just wrote, maybe it's the predictability that I have trouble with. I'd be more interested in a time travel where the h/h traveled to our future. Now that would be different. Hard to pull off, of course, and it would take a lot of world building, but I'd find that a lot more fun to read than another historical disguised as a paranormal. (Yeah, I know, but I don't read historicals.)

Edited to add: I do think I can judge any TT I have fairly--I focus on the writing--it's just not my favorite sub-genre, that's all.

I have to run. It's after 5am and we all know what that means--time to get ready for the EDJ.

I finished Christmas cards last night. Hurrah! I'll get them out in the mail today and be finished with it. Now let's hope that no one unexpected sends me a card because I have none left. I might be able to scrounge up a card left over from previous years except that I have no clue which box they might be in.

I did get one card yesterday from someone I didn't expect to send me one. Fortunately, I hadn't finished cards yet, so I was able to send one in return, but boy, her card held bad news. Her husband, also a friend of mine, was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Reading that was like taking a kick in the chest. He's been tested regularly, so they caught it early, but it's an aggressive strain.

Still haven't bought any Christmas presents. Gah! It's gift certificates for everyone, I guess. Again. And I still need to send out e-cards, but I haven't even had time to get over to the website and take a look. This time of the year is way too stressful and hectic.

I ordered a book that's out of print and has been out of print for years. It's called Screwballs by Jay Cronely and it's a book I've loved ever since I checked it out of the library years ago. It was out of print then too, but I found a copy very reasonably priced and it arrived yesterday. It's fiction. The story's about a baseball team full of high-priced free agents who get a new manager, a man who believes in the old school of baseball. It's a hilarious read. One of the descriptions I've remembered for years was when the manager talks about his rookie pitcher who has "all the control of a blind man throwing feathers in a hurricane." I don't know if you need to be a baseball fan to read and appreciate this story, but if you are, it's LOL funny.

Saturday, I made great progress on the WIP. Then, as has been the way with this book, I cut half of it on Sunday and rewrote. If I thought I did a lot of cutting and rewriting on Crimson Veil, this book is proving me wrong. Now I know what a lot means. :-/

After my brain shut down around 7:30, I went shopping online. Not for Christmas presents, which is probably what I should have been shopping for, but for other stuff. I kept waiting for some charity to send me those free address labels--after all, I have a huge collection with my old address--but I still haven't gotten any and I'm tried of writing it out by hand. I know, lazy, but it seems like such a waste of time. I happened to have a free shipping coupon code that expired at the end of the month so I decided it was a good opportunity to use it. After all, it was still early and I could finish picking up a few things and go to bed early. Yeah, right.

Next, I went to check out the online vitamin store. I'm running low on the B Complex (for energy, which I totally need since I never get enough sleep) and I wanted some Flaxseed oil in pill form. I tell you, there's way too much to choose from and I don't know what version is best. It's overwhelming.

I still had an coupon for $10 off at an office supply store and a coupon for $15 off my next shoe order and a coupon for free shipping from an online store that sells house stuff, but it was after 10pm by then. What happened to my early night? Sigh. So I'm really tired this morning and now I'm getting spam in foreign languages. I can't even understand the alphabet, so I'm betting it's Cyrillic (spelling?) or Slavic or whoever uses those different shaped letters.

I just realized how stupid and boring this post is. I was going to delete it, but it's 5am and I have to logoff and get ready for the day job, which means this stays. Sorry.

Yep, it's movie review day. Well, kind of. Do You Believe In Miracles is an hour long documentary on the 1980 Olympic hockey team. I was so captured by the movie Miracle, that I wanted to see more about that team.

This documentary aired on HBO in 2001 and includes interviews with Herb Brooks who coached the team, Craig Patrick who was another coach, about half a dozen US team members, a couple of soviet team members and sports reporters from both the US and USSR. Not only did this hour-long show cover the hockey team, but they also spent a great deal of time putting the gold medal into societal and historical perspective. This included interviews from Walter Mondale, who was vice president when these Olympics occurred, some regular news reporters and one of the former Iranian hostages.

I enjoyed the documentary a lot, particularly how they put it in context because that really was critical in explaining how huge this miracle was to the United States. It was also completely fabulous that they put the Soviet players' perspective into the show as well. That added a lot and it was the first time I'd seen anything about that at all.

What I thought needed improvement: they didn't display the names of the people interviewed often enough. I frequently couldn't remember which player was speaking and I just gave up after a while. The only one I recognized every time he appeared on screen was Jack O'Callahan. I also wish the documentary had been a little longer and showed more hockey. My other disappointment was at the end. They had graphics telling what the players/coaches interviewed were doing now, but only those interviewed. I would have liked to have seen what the entire US team was up to now like they did at the end of the movie I watched a couple of weeks ago.

Overall, it was an interesting documentary that enhanced Miracle. I wish I'd seen it before I watched the movie.

My rating: 4 stars

I mentioned in my post yesterday that my parents cooked at my house when my step-cousin visited because they wanted the food to be edible. It wasn't an exaggeration. Let me tell you about my latest adventure in the kitchen.

Yesterday afternoon, I started the dishwasher and looked inside the oven. There were some spatters of grease from the steaks my parents had broiled the day before and I didn't like that. This was my nice, brand new oven and I wanted it immaculate again, so I hit the button for the self cleaning feature and went to the living room to work on the computer. To set the stage, my kitchen, dining room, living room and foyer are all one big room with a vaulted ceiling. As I'm sitting there, I smell something. I shrug it off. It's probably burning the grease off the interior of the oven, not a big deal. I go back to work.

I'm not sure how much later it was, but I start thinking, wow, it really smells smoky in here. But I don't look up from the laptop.

Finally, even I couldn't ignore it any longer. It really stinks and there wasn't that much grease in the oven. I look over, and hanging like a haze in my great room area is smoke. Lots and lots of white smoke. My eyes widen. I look up at the smoke detector. The last thing I want is that going off. I put down the laptop and scurry for the oven and stop the cleaning feature. It begins its cool down procedure, but the smoke is still thick. Yikes!

I run for the windows and start opening them wide. It's 29 degrees outside with a frigid wind, but I had to get rid of that smoke somehow and I'm dreading the screech of the smoke detector. All my room fans are at my parents' house because I didn't think I'd need them now that I have a home with central air. I run and flip on the vent fans in the laundry room and the guest bathroom, although I don't think it'll do any good since they're both enclosed rooms and the smoke is mostly in the great room area.

The smoke doesn't seem to be dissipating too quickly, but the house sure got cold in a heartbeat. I don't know how long I tried to tough it out on the couch, but I finally moved myself and the laptop into the bedroom where it was warmer.

I can still smell the smoke this morning, although it's much less than it was last night. They build these new houses so tight now, that I think I'm going to need to open the windows again today to try and get some of the stink out. Sigh. It's 37 degrees.

Lesson: Don't let me near an oven, even when it doesn't involve actual cooking.

Last night, I had company. I bet that's the first time I ever typed that sentence on my blog. :-) My step-cousin (I think that's how our relationship works out) was in town on business and my parents invited her over for dinner at my house. And since I'm sadly lacking in kitchen supplies, my mom and dad hauled over all kinds of stuff from their house. All kinds of stuff. Gah!

I came home from work and my counters were loaded with stuff. Loaded, I tell you. More than you can possibly imagine anyone would need for a dinner for four. I grew up in chaos. My parents are horrible pack rats and there was always clutter everywhere and that included our kitchen counters. Seeing this in my house when I walked in the door was enough to make me shudder. I told myself it was only for a few hours, I could handle it for that long.

Gail arrived not that long after I did and after giving her a grand tour of my house (including the two rooms I haven't unpacked boxes in yet and my dad took her to my basement. sigh.) We started talking. I'd gotten her hooked on romance novels and we started talking about books. :-) You gotta love that. It turns out we already love some of the same authors--Sherrilyn Kenyon, Karen Marie Moning, Christine Feehan. I also recommended a few authors like Julie Garwood and Jayne Ann Krentz and promised to email more suggestions. Because Gail travels on business all the time, she reads on planes and in hotel rooms so she goes through a lot of books and she needed more authors to read. :-)

It was a really fun evening and I saw the coolest movie she made for her grand nephew's first birthday party. If I could remember the name of the program, I'd hunt it down myself because it was a phenomenal movie, combining still photos and video and covered big events in his first year of life. Way cool!

It was really nice to socialize a little bit--I haven't done much of that in ages because I'm always writing--or so it seems. The highlight of the night, though, is this story that Gail told me. I hope y'all don't mind my passing it along here because it's like the coolest thing ever.

Gail was in Tucson to do a presentation and she ran out of books and headed to the store to get some more. I can't remember if it was B&N or Borders for sure, but I think it was Barnes & Noble. Anyway, she always buys a huge stack because she can go through a book in a day and a half. She goes up to the counter and she and the clerk start talking about romance novels. The clerk reads them too. So Gail mentions that she has a relative who writes romances. The clerk asks who and Gail tells her, Patti O'Shea. (Here's the cool part.) The woman behind the counter says, "Oh, my God! You know Patti O'Shea!" And from the way Gail told the story, there was that level of excitement. :-) Gail said it was like you were a movie star or something. Now isn't that the coolest story ever? this is one I'm going to savor for a really long time--like today when I'm back to fighting with the WIP.

Gail didn't stay real late since she has a flight this morning. This is good since I get up at 4am, but you know what? Even though I got to bed before 10pm, I still feel as if I was hit by a truck. It was a great evening, though, and I'm really glad we got together.

Of course, you should see my kitchen. My parents cooked since they wanted the food to be edible and it looks like a tornado went through the place. My dad even managed to get stuff on my burner again--it looks like a little melted plastic of some sort--and I was scrubbing on that last night for a while. We were all tired so my mom and dad went home and I went to bed with stuff everywhere--in my sink, on my counter tops, on my table. I told my parents if they're going to trash my house like this, they can't use it as their party pad any longer. ;-)

It's raining here. Rain in December isn't necessarily a good thing in Minnesota, so I'm going to have to head out the door early. Somehow. No matter how hard I try, I always seem to be running late every morning. Today, I overslept by twenty minutes and that puts me in a crunch. Why is it that the writing this week has finally started coming easier--at 9pm at night? I mean, I went through the nocturnal thing with Mika and Conor, but they were demons and they slept all day. My h/h in the WIP have normal sleeping schedules. Of course, I should be happy that writing is flowing at all even if it is late in the evening. This has truly been the book from hell.

A friend sent me a link to a cute Christmas card. Definitely worth the time to look at it.

How's everyone doing on their holiday shopping? I haven't started yet. Heck, I'm still writing holiday cards. I thought I had my parents figured out and they're the hardest to buy for. I was going to get them a subscription to NetFlix, but now I'm rethinking that. I bring over the movies I've seen that I think they'd like, but they're sending back the second POTC disk unwatched. Now I'll have to think some more. They're so hard to buy for. My mom doesn't have a hobby and my dad's is his lodge.

Sorry about not posting this morning. My laptop went all wonky and even a restart and a complete reboot didn't make it work real well. I had a program update yesterday and I think that's what caused the problem. I turned it off and everything is working fine now. I'm not going to do a whole post because I need to be working, not blogging, but here's a holiday quiz.

Your Christmas Stocking Will Be Filled With Coal

You haven't been *that* naughty this year Santa is just screwing with you

What Will Be In Your Christmas Stocking?

I received some really nice holiday cards yesterday. It still amazes me that I have readers who take the time to mail me a card. It's sweet and I love it and it makes me smile for hours. Something like that never occurred to me when I was reading, but then thoughtful little things generally go past me before I think of them (if I ever do). I never sent an I-loved-your-book note to an author either, but now I will whenever I like a book because I know how exciting and thrilling and meaningful those notes are. Of course, I've finished one book in the last two years because I'm always so busy now, but if I ever have time to read again, I will email authors whose books I liked and let them know. :-)

I'm working on my own holiday cards. Kind of. Trying to sneak them in while I'm at the EDJ because I just don't have time at home. (I sure hope no one from work is reading this!) This year I did a first for me, I had the cards preprinted with my name and appropriate non-specific holiday greeting. It seems kind of impersonal, though, so I'm still signing my name next to the preprinted thing, or adding a brief note.

Oh! I can't believe I almost forgot this. Yesterday morning I was really exhausted, I always am on Mondays because I never sleep on Sunday nights, no matter how tired I am. There was a thick coat of frost on the roads, making them really slippery, and I had to drive slower which meant I got stuck by the train and that made me late for work. So I park the car and I'm all flustered from being late and spacey/crabby from being so tired and as I walk into the lobby, some woman accosts me for a donation. It seems my company has partnered with Make a Wish for the holidays and it wasn't enough to put posters all through the buildings and encourage people to approach the designated floor leader, now they're going to panhandle too.

Now, I'm sure Make a Wish is a fine and worthy organization, however, I prefer to do my charitable giving when I'm at home and have time to evaluate the charity. I want to know how much is going to admin costs and how much actually goes to help the people they're supposed to be helping. I also hugely resented being accosted at 6am. I'm sure this is my company's way of meeting some goal the big shots wanted to meet, but I found it intrusive to walk into a dark lobby and immediately have someone hold out a big fake crystal bowl and say, "Make a Wish." I felt like saying, "I wish I win the lottery so I can quit the EDJ."

They were still leaping on people when I left yesterday afternoon. I sure hope that I can walk in to work today without having to run a gauntlet.

I found out yesterday that I won Midwest Fiction Writers' Rising Star Award! How cool is that?!?

Yesterday, my dad came over while I was writing and mentioned that a kind of relative is going to be in town. My mom's sister's husband's granddaughter. LOL! I think that makes her a step-cousin or something to me. My dad wanted to invite her to have dinner at my house on Thursday night.

You're probably thinking, why at Patti's house? That would be because I don't have any clutter lying around. My counter tops are clear, as is my table and every other surface in my great room/dining room/kitchen area. Sure, I still have the two rooms that I haven't unpacked yet since my move, but merely closing the doors takes care of them. My parents have lots of clutter all the time. When I was in grade school, I knew if I ever wanted to find anything again that I had to hang on to it myself, that if I gave it to my mom or dad, that there would be a stressful twenty minute search when I needed it again. I don't get that, but nearly all my dad's brothers and sisters were the same way.

Anyway, I said fine. Then he starts checking what I have and what I don't have for cooking. My dad should know I only have the basics since I'm not particularly domestic, but he kept on and when that topic was exhausted, he still kept talking. Finally, I'm like, we need to wrap this up because I have to write!

I mean, what's up with this? When I want to talk to him, he's so anxious to go work on something else, that I have to keep saying to him, wait, I'm not finished yet. :-) But yesterday, when I needed to be working on something else, he was wound up. So I'm having company on Thursday and the guest bathroom has a shower rod between the tub and the toilet. No, my dad hasn't installed that yet. I guess I'll just have to put it in the tub. :-/

I'd really been looking forward to the release of this movie on DVD. I even considered seeing it in the theater--briefly--but I think I had a book due...or something. I'm glad now that I waited for DVD.

This story opens with Will and Elizabeth being arrested on their wedding day for freeing Captain Jack Sparrow in the first movie. The bad guy is a lord who's part of the East India Trading Company and he offers Will a deal, but to free himself and Elizabeth, he'll have to find Jack and get his compass. Easier said than done since Jack is in trouble with more than a few people, including cannibals and Davy Jones. (Not Davy Jones the fabulous member of The Monkees, but Davy Jones, the scourge of sailors. :-) I just wanted to be clear.) The rest of the movie involves the search for a chest that everyone seems to want.

So what didn't I like? I didn't think this kracken beast thing that attacked on the orders of Davy Jones was all that interesting a plot device and it seemed to keep showing up over and over and over again. It also seemed as if they kept showing Davy Jones's henchmen calling the kracken over and over. I felt like, okay, already, we get it, let's move on.

The other thing I didn't like was how they ended the movie. I knew it would be a cliffhanger because I heard talk when Dead Man's Chest came out, but I figured it wouldn't be that big a deal. It was. I would have preferred they shoot it as three stand alone movies, or maybe put a plot arc over them, but wrap up the main story. They didn't and I'll have to wait now for Pirates Three to find out what happened.

Things I did like about the movie--Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. How can any woman go wrong staring at those two guys for a couple of hours? Orlando looked hotter in this movie than he did in the first, IMO, but Johnny Depp is still the hottest. I always used to think he was too pretty when he was younger, but now that he's older--oooh, baby!

While I didn't like the cliffhanger ending, I did like who they had show up at the very end. Way cool! That alone will impel me to see Pirates Three when it comes out.

Overall, I thought Pirates of the Caribbean 2 was okay, but that it lacked the charm and humor of the first one. I didn't find anything particularly wrong with it, it just didn't excite me and enchant me like Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl did.

The move is worth watching just to look at Johnny and Orlando and there are worse ways to while away a couple of hours.

3.5 stars

Over the years, I've heard other authors talk about gift books. They said they're rare, but every once in a while, they'll have a story that just flows out. These stories take little revision on their part and the editors who get these books don't ask for many revisions.

I've never, ever had a gift book. All my stories have involved struggle and frustration. So my question is: When do I get my gift book? I'm working on my 6th book to be published. I wrote 3 before I sold my first and I've written a novella. Can't I have one that's easy and practically writes itself? If you go by the law of averages, would you think I'm due by now?

The counterpart to the gift book would be the book from hell. I can't remember hearing other authors talk about this, but surely I'm not the only one who's landed one of those, right? Unfortunately, the WIP is a book from hell. I've never trashed the amount of pages I've trashed in this one. I've cut everything I had at least a dozen times, and a little over a week ago, I trashed everything except chapter 1 and chapter 3 and started over yet again. It made the book much better, but, ouch!

I never thought writing was easy. It's always been hard work for me, but I've never had a book like the WIP either. I used every trick I know or have heard about. I have reams of notes and character sketches and dozens of emails with stream of consciousness brainstorming, but nothing helped. Until this week. I don't know if it was cutting the crap or if it was a miracle, but things finally clicked into place. That doesn't mean I still won't be struggling to get the words down, but at least now I know what the general theme is and I know some of the scenes I need.

I think my next story should be my gift book. After I fight my way through the WIP, I'll deserve it. Unfortunately, I'm not sure gift books work like that. I guess I'll just keep my fingers crossed and hope that some day I can be one of those authors talking about their magical story that seemed to write itself. Until then, back to work.

A reminder. The Shards of Crimson Contest is still underway. There's some great prizes including autographed books, handmade paper, a mug, stakes to take out a vampire and much more. For information on the prizes and instructions on how to enter, visit my website's Contest Page.

I came home yesterday and my closet door is still off. TBH, I'm not surprised about this although I was hoping that my dad would come over in the morning and get it fixed before he began his social engagements for the day. I'd lay money that I'm going to have to nag him for days/weeks before he takes care of it. It might just be easier to do it myself. All I'd need is some instructions on how to hang the door. From what one of the guys at work was saying, it didn't sound like it was too hard. Of course, I'm not particularly handy--any number of crafts projects I've attempted show proof of that--so this might not be the best solution.

Does everyone think sometimes about what they'd change about their house if they had it to do over? I mostly love my new home, but there are a few things that bug me. Like the position of some of the light switches. I have two switches for the laundry room, one is next to the door for the garage and the other is in my hallway. But I can't tell you how many times I've walked into the room and reached to the right on the inside wall. Or the fact that I have no light switches inside my garage for the overhead garage lights or the lights on either side of the garage front. It never even occurred to me that they wouldn't put those switches in. That was a big huh? I wish I had a phone jack on the other side of my bed, but at least I have two phone jacks in almost every room.

I also occasionally think of the good choices I made, like putting a light above the shower, or asking for a lot of lighting in my great room/kitchen area. I hate having to turn on a ton of lamps to have to see anything and this way I don't need them. :-)

Then there's the third category--what I don't have, but wanted and couldn't afford. Like under-the-counter lighting, upgraded carpeting and taller cabinets.

Tuesday night, I called my parents and talked to my dad. A couple of years earlier I'd bought a down blanket, but it had been too warm to use in my old bedroom and I'd dumped it in my parents' basement where it sat all through last winter. Now, though, my new bedroom feels colder at night and I wanted that down blanket for the bed to keep my feet warm. I described the blanket in detail, including it's color and the type of box it was in. My dad kept asking if I had it at my house and I kept insisting that it was still in their basement. Finally, he agreed to look for it and I said I'd pick it up on my way home from work Wednesday afternoon.

I stopped by yesterday and I barely had my coat off when my dad asks if the blanket was quilted. It was. He asks if it's blue on one side and pink on the other. It is not. It's all a raspberry color, I tell him. He frowns. Asks several other questions about the blanket and I'm thinking, what's the deal? I described it yesterday on the phone. It soon becomes apparent that he had searched my linen closet in my house.

I repeat what I said several times on the phone the night before--the blanket is in a box in your basement. It's not in my house.

He finally says that they looked in the basement and they couldn't find it. Then, and this is the reason I'm telling this story, he confesses that when he checked the closet in the spare bedroom, he'd yanked the door off its track and COULDN'T GET IT BACK ON AGAIN!

Yes, that's right, my dad searched my house for a blanket that was in his basement and he ripped the left closet door completely off. I checked it out when I went home and there it is, leaning against the closet door that remains in place.

I didn't say much, but this irritated me for several reasons. First, it appears he spent more time looking in my house than in his. Second, I've been waiting for something like 6 months for him to fix my rocking bar stools and at least 4 months for him to put up the shower rod in my guest bathroom. Do we want to start a pool on how much nagging I'm going to have to do to get my closet door put back where it belongs? Third, why was he yanking the door that hard anyway? These bifold doors aren't that sturdy and I'm always very careful to open them slowly.

The only thing I did say was, why were you looking at my house? I told you I didn't have it. I'd already checked my linen closet before I'd called him and that was absolutely the only place it would be. I guess I should be grateful he didn't yank that bifold door off its track since it's right there in the hallway and it would bug me every time I saw it--which is often.

To make a long story short, I went into my parents' basement, looked around, found the box and retrieved my down blanket. This all took less than 2 minutes despite my mom hollering down the stairs for that entire length of time that she wanted me to look at some other box she'd found and then arguing with me when I told her I'd already found the right box. Sigh.

Sometimes, my parents drive me nuts. It was such a simple request and it ended up being an ordeal that won't be over until I get my closet door fixed.

We have a radio station here that's been playing Christmas music since Thanksgiving. I love that and I've been listening to it every day. I also have the holiday tunes on my MP3 player and I've been listening to those as well. When it comes to Christmas music, I guess I'm a traditionalist--I like to listen to Steve and Eydie, Andy Williams, Robert Goulet, Doris Day and Dean Martin among others. I just can't get into that rock or country flavor to my Christmas songs so I pretty much skip over all the "modern" renditions of the classics.

Every day for the last week or so, this radio station has been playing the Beach Boys Little Saint Nick and the more I hear it, the more I wonder if it's a contender for one of the worst holiday songs ever. With incisive lyrics like: Christmas comes this time each year, I think I might have a challenger for that title. :-) What do you think is the worst Christmas song ever?

I also have the holiday wallpaper up on my laptop. I found possibly the best picture ever. It shows a tropical beach with gentle waves washing ashore, and farther up the sand, someone's traced in the outline of a Christmas tree and put little ornaments on the outside points and a gingerbread man at the apex. I love it! A warm, tropical locale and Christmas--what could be better than that? (I live in MN. White Christmas is highly overrated!)

The house isn't decorated, but I don't own anything I can put up anyway, so that's a moot point. My mom's threatening to give me their artificial tree, maybe because that thing is a PITA to put up and take down again, but I'm resisting. :-) I don't have anywhere to put it anyway.

The holiday cards I ordered arrived yesterday so now I have no more excuses about not getting those out--other than the fact that I'm drowning, of course, but I don't think anyone thinks that's a valid reason. :-/

BTW, I've been getting a ton of hits from people doing a search for: How to hang a scarf valance. If one of you finds really good instructions on how to do this, would you please come back and share the link? I never found a how-to that covered a regular rod and made sense to me.

I'm not quite sure how I ended up running so late again this morning, but I'm doing as bas as, if not worse than, yesterday. Sigh. I really, really wish I didn't have to go to the EDJ.

I've been pruning a few people off my My Space friends list. They were disguised spammers and after the millionth message about ringtones showing up in my bulletins, I'd had enough. There's one guy today who sent a porn bulletin. That happens again, he's off of there too. Generally, I add anyone whose page doesn't look like spam, but with the exception of one page that didn't have much in the way of content, their pages looked normal.

I almost shared this story here on Saturday, but deleted it from my post. On Friday at work, I was sitting on another floor when the phone rang on the other side of the cube wall. I was up in 747 engineering and it seems that one of our freighter planes had an issue coming out of an airport in Asia. The auto pilot engaged on its own and the pilot had to take control away from it. They landed in Anchorage without issue.

Yesterday, I was up in that department working again and that same engineer was on the phone again--this time with the pilot who was going up in the plane to take it for a test run. It seems that the plane had the same thing happen again, even after the mechanics installed new parts.

I found it really interesting what they were doing to figure out what the problem was and what the engineer was telling the pilot to watch for and what he should do if X, Y or Z happened. I think that was probably the most interesting conversation I've heard at work in a long, long time. Hey, you have to take your entertainment where you can find it--especially at the EDJ. Anyway, I have to work up there again today for a while, so hopefully, I'll be able to hear how the test flight went.

Gotta run.

I had an email yesterday that Through a Crimson Veil won Best Paranormal Romance in the Barclay Gold Awards! Yea!

As you can tell from the time stamp on this post, I am very late writing my blog this morning. It's because I stayed up too late last night and couldn't get out of bed. Wild dreams last night, which fortunately for everyone, I can't really remember, but they woke me up a few times. I hate when that happens.

Sorry for the very short post this morning. Brevity isn't usually something found here. ;-)