cupcakes and character conversations

today I became aware of the fact that I have a cupcake related nick name which I embrace. although I can't reveal it. not because it's raunchy but because identities could be compromised. stan smith knows the name and digs it. I dig it. the person who gave me the name probably doesn't dig it. alas.
speaking of stan smith...I got stan smith II back from the Super Cool Bike Store today. yes that is its epic name and they are indeed epic. I can't wait to ride stan. hopefully when I am on stan I'll be able to come up with some interesting ideas for my mss. today on the interstate I got quite a few. two characters had an entire conversation and a scene played out. that was awesome. what wasn't so awesome was I was driving and had to try and recall it when I got home. that's the down side when those things happen. if you are in an inconvenient place you had better remember it or it's gone.

I've got scissors and I'm runnin' with 'em

well, I've decided to embrace my inner me. the runs with scissors me. I've been that way so long and being anything else is just crap. so there you go. just sayin'.
good news though.I've been writing like crazy. on two different mss. AND I have idea for another. which makes me feel great.

Bite Club: VampBash 2010

Bite Club: VampBash 2010: "VampBash 2010 begins next week over at VampChix, with a different author featured every day! And let's not forget the contests. So mark you..."

only a few days left

that's right kids!only a few more days before the kick off of NANWRIMO! this is the first year I'm participating and I'm excited. I think I can do it!hell, if I can train for a triathlon I can crank out 50k words. and writing is a very cheap for of therapy. if you are still waffling about participating, check out their website. or if you aren't participating, be sure and cheer on the participants. I have a feeling they will need it as the days move on. I'll probably be pretty neurotic(even more so) by the end of november myself.

Life in Moonlight will be released September 2011

yes, Life in Moonlight will be released in paperback in 2011 by Melange Books. it will be out in ebook format before that but I don't have a date yet. no Sam Neill won't be on the cover (that would be FRIGGIN AWESOME) but that's who I kind of associate Eamon with. oh and AR. yeah...Sam and AR. mmmmm.
other than that I am super super excited about this and as it gets closer I will be doing all sorts of giveaways and stuff.

seeing the zen in suffering

yeah, the pic is harsh but funny. I've had it awhile and today just seemed optimal. today is the end of a funk that has lasted for a few weeks and while it was harsh, it was a good zen type learning experience. in all of the crappy events in my life I have always been able to take away something from the experience. some sort of knowledge. today was no different. as I write this the loving calm feeling that I look for in the aftermath of bad experiences is working its way over me. maybe it's the funny pic. maybe it's american dad. maybe it is just time. so I will move on.
meanwhile, enjoy the Timmy video posted below. Tim is BOOM!

Timmy BOOM!

Made of Awesome AR

behold my new wallpaper on my netbook. eehehehehehehe. I'm in the AR mood because I was watching Something the Lord Made, where he plays a pioneering southern surgeon. he does the most yummy southern accent. very convincing. not overdone. just AR.
so I seem to be in a silent holding pattern about LIM. I haven't heard a peep from the publisher so I am practicing zen waiting. in the meantime I am writing on my other projects.
meanwhile on the triathlon front...I am 34 days away from my Orlando Women's Triathlon. I'm getting nervous. I'm sure I'll do fine but I'm still nervous. nervous because I don't know what to expect. the unexpected is always nerve wracking for me. I seem to be focusing all my energy on this race because it is a first time. I guess that's natural.

I am so moving to New Zealand

so my big thing is whenever I get frustrated, I plan my big move to New Zealand. it's my grown up version of running away to join the circus. today, I made more plans. I figure the move would be awesome. nursing jobs abound, the land is gorgeous, people are friendly, Sam makes delish wine there and well lots more other things. I had one of those days so the move idea seemed like a winner. I think I am frustrated about my writing. I haven't heard from my publisher and I must be secretly irritated. I'm also frustrated about the writer's block I've been experiencing. I am so open to suggestions on how to shake it. when I wrote LIM I never had writer's block. ever. so this is very new for me. usually when I sit down to write, I just bang it out but with this one...no such luck. I think because I still have plot holes. however the logical side of me says write and they will fill themselves in. however I rarely listen to the logical side of me. maybe why that's why I get in so much trouble. but maybe that is why I am so much fun and want to move to New Zealand.

gator fans fighting with gator fans!other gator fans suffer with out fans!

yes it's zombie Albert and Alberta. even as zombies they are still awesome. zombie gators have nothing to do with my post today. well, I guess because they are Gators they do. but again, zombies freak me out big time and whenever I read zombie or post apocalyptic stuff, I get all freaked out and paranoid. love to all my author friends who write that. for some reason those things are my achilles heel. if ever I was captured for secrets(haha that's fantasy) all they would have to do would be stick me in front of a tv or an e reader filled with zombie and post apocalyptic stories and I'd crack.
but I digress, yesterday was the first day of college football season and my beloved Gators played. I tried to use the experience to help fuel my WIP FUNdraiser. I had some luck but not as much as I had hoped for. probably because there were no fans. not fans as in fanatics. they were everywhere. the fans I am on a rant about are the nifty hand fans that they used to hand out before the first 3 or 4 games of the season. they were not only awesome (they looked like this but with a stick handle)

but they kept you somewhat cooler. not much because it's so hot that you measure the temperature in degrees Kelvin. that's a lot. one day I'll tell you about my chemistry readiness score. come to find out that they decided to stop handing out the fans as they had done for probably 40(no exaggeration) years because last season a dumb ass slapped another fan(the human variety. I know it's getting confusing) with one and then there was a fight and then charges were filed. blah blah blah. now, I can't believe that this is the first time that this has happened. maybe the charges being filed part but not the use as weaponry part. but I guess in this day and time of no one being responsible and the overlords having to watch out for us all, hand fans were determined to be too dangerous or at least too tempting for spectators to manipulate responsibly. so now 90 plus fans must sit fanless in the murderous heat to cheer on the Gators. the fans under the boxes won't suffer because the people in the boxes open their windows and waves of arctic air flow down on them but the rest of us will. all because someone screwed it up for the rest of us.
end rant now.

biking and Mt Everest

I've been working overtime trying to keep my peacefulness centered. I usually concentrate on Mt Everest. I have pictures of her all over and looking at the pics usually can bring me back center. one thing I can't seem to get going is my writing. I'm stuck. I've got characters in limbo right and left. and the bad part about it is I can't figure out how to get back to them. they are stranded at camp 3 on my Everest. unfortunately my brain is full of other things like my job, the triathlon, school and so forth. there isn't much brain power left to get to my characters. usually I do my mental housekeeping on my bike workout. I have roughly an hour of uninterrupted cycling to ponder things so I think I am going to have to do some very focused thinking and get rid of anything that is cluttering up my thinking.
of course it doesn't help that I am sick. I seem to have caught what my students have and I made it worse by rooting the Gators on today. but nothing keeps me from my beloved Gators. even if there is no more Timmy.

mild mannered nurse but with a secret kick ass protector side

one of the many duties I perform as a school nurse is protector. I think the real term they teach in nursing school is advocate but protector sounds more appropriate. I serve as a protector for kids. in the very short time school has been back in I have already seen a few episodes of tormenting of fellow students who are seen as different than the others. now, I work in an elementary school so yeah it starts early. I applaud the teacher who also saw the certain episode that caused me to dawn my bully crusher cape. she put a stop to the incident pronto before I could lock the clinic up and move in to snatch the miscreant up. I stood in on the action the teacher took and gave the bully the "I've got my eye on you and I will hunt you down like a dog if I even THINK you are bullying weaker kids"
I freakin hate bullies. being a chubster growing up, I was the victim of teasing. Or I was until I literally punched out the neighborhood bully. she was taunting me and I guess I just snapped and walked back to her and asked her what her deal was. she scratched my face so I just rared back and decked her. one shot and down she went. the neighborhood kids rejoiced and I wasn't victimized anymore. ever since then I have felt a duty to protect those who needed it. kind of like a superhero.
to make a long rant short... always beware of bullying. teach your kids about the dangers of it. help a person you suspect is a victim of it. bullies suck big time.

and here you go because it's all good

much like AR...Sam is like visual ativan

I was honest and the world didn't end

I didn't have any cupcakes to eat while remaining calm over the past few days. I would have liked to have them but alas the cupboard was bare. it's been a while since I posted but I have been busy with all sorts of crap. not only crap but starting my awesome new job. that has been such a treat. seriously. I love my job and for the first time in a long while, I feel like a nurse.
I've also been involved in some mental housekeeping. for good or for bad it was a necessity. and once again I was able to see the yin and the yang of life. I love when that happens. even when it is painful or not what I want. but I survived and here I am. all those people in my past who told me that I would not die were right. I actually was honest and forthright about sharing something and my world didn't end. and in fact my world became a more certain place because I finally saw that I wouldn't shrivel up and die by doing so. you're probably saying WTF is she rambling about but I'll just say never fear being honest. you won't die if you don't hear what you want. in fact you will walk away a stronger and richer person. like I did.
anyway, sorry for the absence. I'll be back. and I'll be better than ever.

Book Review --The Vampire Hunters by Scott M. Baker

Lately I've been reading a ton of books that involve vampire hunters. I find this funny and ironic because I write about vampires as attractive protagonists. So I thought I could review a few of these books. Today's novel is The Vampire Hunters Book I by Scott M. Baker.

Modern day vampire hunters wage a brutal battle against the undead in the nation's capital.
As former Boston cops, Drake Matthews and Alison Monroe thought they had experienced it all... until they found themselves tracking down a serial killer who turned out to be one of the undead. Stopping him cost them their careers and almost their lives.
Thanks to an influential and anonymous benefactor, Drake and Alison find a new job ridding the streets of Washington D.C. of the vampiric threat terrorizing the nation's capital.
Only this time, Drake and Alison are not facing a single vampire but an entire nest led by Ion Zielenska, one of history's most evil and twisted masters. As the vampires indiscriminately prey on humans, seeing them as nothing more than food to satiate their hunger, they create a wave of violence that threatens to engulf the city.
Orchestrating the carnage is Antoinette Varela, the mistress of the nest, whose vendetta against the hunters is personal.

I truly enjoyed this book. I thought I wouldn't be as taken with it as I was because it mainly focuses on the hunters but I was. Each of the hunter characters was well constructed and 3 dimensional and I found myself drawn into each of their personal stories. Especially protagonist Drake Mathews and Alison Monroe. I cared about them and felt like I knew them.  The vampires, who the author portrays as evil, ugly creatures, were still fascinating. They were even more attractive because this type of portrayal is not very common in novels right now.They are more in tune with what world folklore states they are. Baker skillfully weaves historical facts and information into an intriguing version of the battle against vampires and their quest to dominate humanity.
The narrative of the novel was well paced. While detailed, I never felt bogged down. The author also builds a setting so vivid that I felt like I was there. Especially the final scene, which I won't give away. 
Like I said before I enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. I can't wait to read the sequel, which according to the publisher's website, comes out on August 20th. I understand that there is going be a third in this series but I'm unsure of the release date.
You can find The Vampire Hunters Book I by Scott M. Baker  on shadowfirepress.com

disclaimer type stuff- this was an unsolicited review. I bought the book on my own to review it.