The Novelty Girls

I had a great vacation. I wrote like mad and finished a novel. *woohoo*

I also went out dancing with friends. Twice. Much fun was had and the second time turned out to be the monthly fetish night at that club. Color me shocked by the slight change in clientèle. I have pictures to prove it. I didn’t participate in any of the madness, but I got great shots of people who did. Hey, you put it out there in public and I’m allowed to photograph it.

So, there.

Nothing is sacred or safe from the camera when I’m around. Not if it’s in public. Mwah ha ha. I should have pics up on my blog later this week. The tamer ones, naturally.

Now I’m back to work. *ugh* And back to the daily writer grind. I’m on deadline from now until eternity.

Someday I want to make a living at this writer thing so I can spend the rest of my career enjoying week’s like the last one. Hey, maybe I’ll get lucky and the novel I just finished will be even more popular than Harry Potter and they’ll make movies and I’ll top out the NY Times best seller list. A girl can dream, right?

NO…thing to do.
NO…where to go.
NO…people to see.

This post is in honor of the two x’s too busy weekends I’ve had lately. I am so tired that I have NO…thing brewing wise in my brain to talk about.

Between kid activities, birthday parties, Karate competitions, hospital visits, etc. the last two Saturday’s have been busy chaos. So, the first three sentences of this post are my three wishes to my fairy godmother…wherever she is.

And what’s so bad about it is that next Saturday probably won’t fair any better. The only good thing about it will be that it’ll be my birthday! But I’m sure I’ll still have to do…you know…those three sentences way up there. Maybe I’ll feel better after I open gifts. *snicker*

Hope you had a great Saturday!

And why?

Not because I was having an absolutely fantabulous time out by the pool while cabana boys brought me frou-frou drinks in oddly shaped and coloured glasses…no, my internet simply decided to go

spiralling

out of control.

Of course, there’s nothing wrong with it, the company says, but that doesn’t change the fact that, without reason, it will crash nearly every morning at about 10 am, and stay off for as long as it feels like.

Last week I was supposed to post my schedule so Lori, Crys and I can knock each other senseless with our deadlines. Here goes:

1. Between Good and Aeval (my sequel to Go Between) 12K left and going slow. I’d like this off my desk by May 1st.

2. But Where would they Live: an epic fantasy story in mind to kick off a new series (yeah, another one) I’m at 2000/120,000 words. I’d like this one done.

3. edits on Go Between start in two weeks.

4. I have to write the third and fourth books in the Curtain Torn Series by the end of the summer. (30K apiece)

I know, I’m the slacker novelty girl…I don’t have deadlines imposed on me by others, I have to do it myself. (And as you can see by the lack of actual dates, I’m not very good at that, either.)

Someone find the Cattleprod of Motivation please, and lend it to us?

So I was blog hopping the other day, and I think it was Isabella who was talking about music and what gets you going.

Music is massive in my life. I was a music major, and studied both vocal jazz and classical. I almost can’t write listening to some classical, because I get too caught up listening and analyzing the movements of the music.

Faure’s Requiem is what I listen to when I want to cry, and have a dozen emotions hit me at once. It’s so passionate and beautiful.

Jazz,like the staple Ella Fitzgerald, is a familiar comfort that I’ll pop into my cd player and sing along with. It’s my comfort food. Jazz is what I listened to while writing Ain’t Misbehavin’

Country, Rascal Flatts and Alison Krauss, are for when I just want to relax and enjoy music, pretend the world has no problems. It’s all I listened to when I wrote my book Tempting Adam, because my hero was a drool worthy, charming, country boy.

Now if I want to write a hardcore sex scene, or action? What do I pick? Well, like a lot of you, I’m sure music with an edge. Coldplay, U2, and for that down and dirty sex scene Closer by Nine Inch Nails.

Music is another side of me, my other artistic side. And I love being able to weave that into my writing. You’ll find that in a many of my books, I mention music

How about you? Is music a big part of your writing?

I’m on vacation this week. Hooray! Yay! Woooooohoooooo!

I really need this vacation. I haven’t had a vacation day in five months or so. And on top of all that I have deadlines. Major huge scary deadlines. You know the insane-crazy schedule I posted a couple weeks ago? Add a 50K story on top of that. Just, you know, because.

So, I’m sleeping in, cooking good food, and writing my butt off this week. I’m ready. Let’s go. Sitting in a chair with a lap top in my lap is good for my posture and chair-butt skills, right? Right?

Yeah, a lot of people with an extra week off might do something exciting, like, go out of town. But this is what I want to do with my time. Be an obsessive compulsive writer chica who sits in pink armchair.

I’m hoping this is how it will be for me someday. Quit the day job and write full time. Please, please, please. So, yeah, Im going enjoy this vacation.

Have a great week all! I will!

This waaaaayy late Saturday post is in honor of where I spent my afternoon today. At Disney’s Princess on Ice tour. I took my two daughters, along with a couple of co-workers and their daughters and they absolutely “loved it.” And to be honest….so the hell did I. I mean who can resist Snow White, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty (although I must admit…I do NOT remember this story - I’m going to have to pick up the book), Beauty & the Beast…you get my point.

It’s what we write…right? Happily Ever After! The cornerstone of romance. The princess gets her prince. The heroine gets her hero. They go through trials and tribulations, obstacles in their path, people who want to thrwart them at every chance….but in the end….they fall in love and live HEA.

You gotta love it!

If it comes to your city and you get a chance - go see it. It’s not just for the kiddies.

Hope you had a great Saturday.

My days to post seem to come closer and closer. Where the heck did the last week go!? Time keeps getting away from me. The kids get out of school in six weeks. And while I can’t wait for summer when I can sleep in, it’s probably going to put a serious crimp in my writing schedule. I’m way behind for the year already. Crystal posted her schedule last week hoping I’d whip her into shape. I’m doing the same thing now.

The Voyage 25k (15k completed)
The Initiation 20k (3k completed)
Bitter Death 60k
Saving Grace 50k (30k completed)
Sudden Death 60k

TV and TI need to be done before school gets out. BD needs to be done before Dallas. SG and SD needed to be completed by the end of the year. Oh, and I have to tackle Hurricane edits next week, which will be another 5k new words probably. Why I commit myself to these kinds of schedules is beyond me. Just crazy I guess.

Anyone else doing this insanity? Or is it just me and Crystal?

You know, I have my issues. We all do.

There are days I bemoan the fact that I’m a single mom, and I’ll probably never date again.

I can get stressed out when I think that I have yet to sell to New York, yet I know a handful of people who sold on the first try.

Then there were days (I say were, because I think we’ve crossed that bridge) when I was convinced my toddler was the only child who would never get potty trained, and I’d have to walk her down the aisle with her in diapers.

I could dwell on the fact that my friendship with my bestfriend isn’t what it used to be.

There’s just so much I could obsess over. But I don’t let myself dwell on when I’ll sell to New York, or potty training, or the friend thing. Why? Because these are things I can control. I can choose to be positive and work to make things better. I have control over these things.

It’s all about perspective. How big are our ‘problems’ really? Because surely… they could be worse.

Take a moment and appreciate what you have and your friends. Because that’s something you can control. You can’t control some guy who’s going to go off the deep end and randomly shoot and kill 32+ people at a University. My heart and prayers go out to the victims and family.

So, Lori was talking about buying things for conference. Clothes, shoes, etc. But there are other expenses, too. Like business expenses.

First, you want business cards. And there’s a school of thought that says your cards should match your website. I like the matching thing. Next thing you know I’ll be sporting sweater sets.

This, for me, means paying someone to design me some business cards to match my website. I can code with the best of them, (and for those of you who can’t we’re just rowing on opposite sides of the same boat) but I have NO design skill. Those are two very separate things–coding and designing. So, I also have to get someone to design a site I like. And you always want this done before conference so you can cement the whole image as a package. More expenses.

So…to prep for conference, I had Croco Designs make me a new website and cards to match.

*disclaimer* This post is a blatant attempt to show off my pretty new stuff. I love it.

*disclaimer 2* The colors on this image are somehow messed up (they actually do match the website in real life), but there’s a half-naked piece of man-meat. So, I’m not complaining.

Last weekend I thought my writing totally sucked…then to my utter amazement, I sold the novella I sent in to Samhain. Whoop! Whoop! And, I sent in the book on proposal I sold to Freya’s Bower in January…to my editor…and she loved it. Another Whoop! Whoop! So, maybe I don’t suck as much anymore. LOL

Like Crystal…I made a list of some insane goals that I plan to have finished by the end of June before I go to Jamaica. I got sick last weekend like Dayna, totally lost my voice, was hacking and coughing all over the place, didn’t get to enjoy Easter like I wanted to, got no sleep Sunday night, so I didn’t go to work Monday. I’m still coughing, but feel much much better.

Next week at school we’re testing again (I swear, if could find the person who came up with the first standardized test, I’d shoot them on the spot), which I know is going to put me in a pissy mood all next week. It wouldn’t be so bad if I could “do” something else while the kids tested, but NOOOO….you can’t do anything. You can’t read, write, NOTHING. You have to “stand there” totally quiet….and “watch them” for 2 - 3 hours, because if the State Department of Education decides they want to “monitor” you and they find that you’re not standing there doing absolutely freaking NOTHING….then you could lose your license. I have to endure this for 4 days.

So, think about me and my boredom from 8:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. next week.

Have a great weekend. It’s cold and rainy here.