anytime there are vintage animals riding in vegetable cars, it's a win. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope you all have a great day full of happiness and fellowship. take a moment out to think about what you are truly thankful for and all the blessings you've received no matter how small they were. even though I have had a rough past month, I am truly grateful for the experience of it. if you know me personally you know what I am dealing with. but this has taught me humility,patience,the importance of friends and family and to be thankful for each day and what you have because you might not have it too long. yes, I'm thankful for a rotten patch because it makes me appreciate the good times and the just meh times. if that isn't a blessing, I don't know what is.
on the dinner front, I'm cooking and we are having southern thanksgiving. turkey, cornbread dressing, turnip greens, field peas etc. I've seasoned them the redneck way with lots of ham hocks and neck bones. ugg you might say but it's good. I love southern cooking. it's how I learned to cook although I can cook just about anything you ask for. the southern cooking makes me think of my family so it is special to me. it's been passed down through the generations straight from the farms and countryside where my family lived and still lives. I live on acreage and LOVE it. although we no longer fit one of the you might be a redneck jokes of "if directions to your house include turn off the paved road" I miss living on a dirt road. now we only live near a dirt road. we moved onto the hard road.
anyway, enough rambling. enjoy your day! back to cooking and back to NaNo. I'm almost done!!I'm thankful for that too!

and then it hit me

look at this sexy mo fo. so there I was watching Legion with this dude, Paul Bettany, and it was like a light went off in my head. a big flashing red light that said wowza. there he is. my mc. this dude with the mannerisms and smooth factor of AR and Sam. I went right back to writing and wrote some of the sexy bits that I had been skipping over. yep, it's always better with inspiration.
and now a public service announcement... this on behalf of super awesome writer and funny as hell chick Allison Pang. apparently some prick was selling an ARC of her soon to be released novel A Brush of Darkness on eBay. this is a BIG BIG BIG GIANT NO NO. ARCs are labeled not for sale and that means sales of all varieties. if you are lucky enough to get an ARC, please respect the author and don't sell it. it's wrong and it's piracy. those kinds of pirates are not cool.

Borrowing Heaven, Subletting Hell is Allison's blog btw. check it out!

more Putin than you can shake a stick at

so speaking of taking over the world...one of my characters is dreaming of that. what a fatal dream. people who have that dream always meet their doom. kind of says dream big but not tooo big. anyway, I was writing a scene tonight and had to rely on good ol' google maps and google earth. I was checking routes and city layouts for a city I haven't lived in for MANY years. thank goodness for things like those nifty tools. otherwise readers in that city would be like man, she's way off. I love weaving fictional things into real places. it gives readers a connection to a city they might not ever have been to or readers who actually live there a feeling of hey, that's right near me! all this sounds really dumb but perhaps it's because my mind is tired from writing and staring at those damn google maps.

now under 20k words to go!

is this pic related?no but it's funny as hell. anyway,I am now over 30k words in my NANO word count. this is going very well. I fixed my plot hole. a new character stepped up and took care of it just as nice as you please. but one thing, my ms has gone from a paranormal romance to more of an urban fantasy with strong romantic elements. and my bad guy(who is a frickin evil dude from real life) is yearning to become likeable for his own nefarious reasons. I hate to kill him. he's creepy though. can someone be evil, I mean really evil but try and show that he has another side? it's weirding me out. I didn't think he would go this direction when I decided to put him in but he did. crazy characters. doing things that are out of character for them! 11 days to go on my journey. how is anyone else's NANO journey going?

I'm caught up but now I'm SCREWED

this is a pic of THE dracula in my opinion when he was older. not quite as awesome but still. well, so I wrote most of my ass off and managed to get my word count caught up for nanowrimo but I came to a horrible realization. I have a MAJOR FRIGGING PLOT  HOLE. yeah. I have everything set up. everyone in place. the inciting incidents happened and now I have no stinking idea how to get them to the epic showdown and resolution. it's like everyone got an invitation to a swell shin dig but they don't have a ride. this is a problem. I've got everything after that figured out so it's not like it is a total gooch. it's a transportation thing. now I'm going to have to write around it  and hope that the characters can figure it out for themselves. this is when Greek drama was awesome with the old Deus Ex Machina trick would come in handy. it would blow for the reader but for the frustrated author it would be great. has anyone else ever done this?

lifting my head up from week 2 of nanowrimo

so it's the end of week 2 of nanowrimo and true to my style, I'm a bit behind. I was struck with frigging rotavirus and that made me useless for 3 days so there you go. I've only written 21thousand  and change words so I am going to have to hit it hard next week. I always seem to do better in situations like this anyway. when I was a theatre student, we would be finishing costumes sometimes right up until first call so I can deal with the added pressure of a few hundred extra words a day. the little stats bar says I have to write 1811 words a day to finish on time. that's doable. my characters are talking to me and doing crazy things so it should be a snap. but stay tuned. last minute finishes are ALWAYS interesting. how is anyone else's nano experience going?

Lyrics, I Know Him So Well Lyrics >>

Lyrics, I Know Him So Well Lyrics >>

almost a week down for nanowrimo

well, the first week of nanowrimo is almost on the books.hahahaha. okay. I actually have been doing quite well. I need to add like another thousand words by tomorrow to stay on schedule. let me just tell you this is harder than training for the triathlon. when training for a triathlon, people can see that you are doing something. you are biking or jogging or swimming or complaining about those three but still you are doing something for people to see. writing sometimes doesn't get the same respect of tri training either. when I am writing, it looks like I am just chillin. I am usually relaxing with my netbook in my lap with either music or a movie on in the background. so on superficial inspection, I'm goofing off.  HA! if only. to the doubting general population, I AM hard at work. My brain is spinning with plot details, grammar, dialog, intrigues and frickin deep pov. it ain't easy despite its chillaxed appearance. I get tons of interruptions, another thing I don't get while training, and that makes keeping my thoughts flowing smoothly almost impossible. I have pads of paper to write down "creative flows" when I'm interrupted because I had a rather dramatic tirade the last time someone obstructed my writing progress.
like I said, I need another k of words by tomorrow evening. I know I'll get it done. even if it does look like I'm just goofing off.

ps. love that pic of Sam Neill in The Hunt For Red October. that's what I'm watching right now.

a break from the evil sexy genius type for...the sweet awesome dude

okay so I am always going on and on about sexy, alpha, mostly bad guys but today I'm going to let you in on my kryptonite...the sweet unassuming dude who treats his girl like gold. this type never gets his fair share of press and praise. oh well maybe Tim Awesome Tebow but usually the sweetie stands in the shadow of sexy bad guy and big muscular hero type(bleah) this is somehow unfair. I have to admit some of my most favorite and sexy scenes from True Blood this past season were the Hoyt Jessica saga, played by Jim Parrack and Deborah Ann Woll. they could have full episodes of those two and I'd freakin love it. it just makes my lil heart go pitter pat when he a Jessica are together. it even earns a SQUEE!
I am a sucker for the evil genius,sexy world dominator but the sweet guy is the one I should have my eye on. a few years ago, I discovered that when I was in high school several guys fitting this profile liked me. at the time I didn't notice them but now in my older and wiser years, I see that the sweet guys would have been better. but like most girls, my head was always turned by something not good for me.
so here's to the sweet good guy who loves his girl! you guys are awesome and not because you bring us cookies when the AR and Sam types leave us to try and take over the world.
I now resume my usual public lusting.(but now you know who the type who I secretly dig)

day one and I am already easily distracted

yes that's right. day one of nanowrimo and I am already easily distracted. today's incident was related to this smexy mofo. I was looking for a movie to have on in the background while I write. I do this often. Race For Witch Mountain came on in which Mr. Ciaran Hinds (see above) plays a menacing CIA type villain. that lead me on the quest to find my copy of Jane Eyre where he plays Mr. Rochester. I LOVE this version. when I read Sherri Browning Erwin's Jane Slayre, I pictured Ciaran Hinds as Mr Rochester. he would be an awesome...well I don't want to give away one of the twists of Jane Slayre. read it if you haven't. it's AWESOME. again I am getting off track. anyway so I am looking all over to find my VHS (I know) copy of of JE. I finally find it and when I take the cassette out, IT IS NOT IN THERE. so then I am all over the internet looking for a dvd of it. found and ordered. but still. I went right on off the track on day one.
however it was a yummy detour because I just love Ciaran Hinds. He's a great actor and a delight to look at. plays a kick ass alpha/ bad guy. LOVED him as Caesar in HBO's Rome. anyway...back to writing.

my favorite day

well here it is...my favorite day/holiday of the year. I just love Halloween. I would keep Halloween decorations up all year but my sanity might get called into question. even more so than it does now. yeah, I'm an eccentric and I love it but I digress. again. I'm a bit peeved because this year my dim witted town elders decided to move the celebrations to last night because Halloween fell on sunday. But I know what the true day is.
Halloween is such a fun holiday. I'm not real nuts about super scary modern stuff. I like the deep rooted superstitions and festitivities. my favorite traditions and decorations are those from the turn of the 19th to 20th century. I collect the postcards like the one above and I make reproductions of the decorations complete with tinsel, crepe and german glitter glass. Once of the traditions I especially love is the one about how if a single woman looks in the mirror at the stroke of midnight brushing her hair and eating an apple by candlelight, she will see her true love reflected in the mirror. that's a lot of stuff to do to see a dude but I love it. there are tons of old postcards portraying this.
colonial traditions and early american traditions are fun as well. I swear I could totally do a master's dissertation on the history and traditions of Halloween. I love it.
however you celebrate Halloween, enjoy!

Awesome

Awesome

HAPPY HALLOWEENIE!!!

apparently I love food

so here are some of the things I made this week. the cupcakes were a repeat they were so good. the bottom one was our tailgate at home party spread. I cooked for like 3 hours. wings, crab dip, gator bites, deviled eggs, guacamole, shrimp, dip and veggies. oh and beer. good old beer. beer beer beer. I love it. watched the Gator game and then took Maddy trick or treating. I missed the end of the game because our town decided to move trick or treating to saturday instead of sunday. I know. don't get me going. anyway, she had fun and scored some candy. no baby ruth candy bars though. crud.

judging a book by its cover

pretty aren't they? I still keep thinking about the cover art for Life in Moonlight and this keeps coming back to me. now if these shoes were stepping on the man shoes like in the poster I love, this would be perfect. remember this poster? I love it. it is p;erfect. make the pointe shoes red or wash the pic in red and bam!it's perfect. I really worry about the cover of my book. I know it's normal for all authors to worry. after all, this is your baby and now you are trusting someone else to interpret your vision in artwork. I completely trust the art director but I still can worry.