Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Fired Up!!!

Oh yeah. *grins*
That's me.

I signed up for NaNoWriMo. And I feel goooooooooooood. I've had this four-book series floating around in my head for the past couple of weeks or so. Now is the TIME! I feel it. So I girded (is that a word?) my literary loins and signed right up. There is no backing down. I have committed. And I should be committed. *grins*
November, however, is a pretty good month for me to try and bang out over 50,000 words. That's only slightly over half what I would like the finished product to be, but it sounds absolutely wonderful. This is just the kick in the ass I was looking for.
I am in immersion mode. Researching my characters. Getting a feel for my lovelies. Making nice, so to speak. :)~~
I've also come to realize I'm not Superwoman. Isn't that tragic?
Here I was multi-tasking to beat the band. Making sacrifice upon sacrifice. Grinning and bearing it.
Pft.
You heard me.
Pffffffffffftttttttttttttttt.
My body's all tense, and I'm betting it's because of the whole "super mode" issue. So my goal, also, this November is to take what I need for myself.
God. Isn't that the hardest? Especially for a Mom. I need to dial down the uber efficiency and realize that I have three children who are more than capable of doing dishes or sweeping a floor. And they do. Don't get me wrong. I simply feel like I have to pick up the slack. So. Obviously I should simply say... SCREW YOU, SLACK!!! You evil malignant guilt trip ass! You've fucked with me for the last time.
HA!
*doing a victory dance*
Updates to come.
Grins*

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

OLDEST CHICKEN'S 15TH BIRTHDAY!!!

Well, it's not her birth TIME. lmao
Because that would be 11:00 pm this evening. After a looooooooooooooooooooong day of labor. Ya hear me?
OC is my first chicken. I wasn't expecting an 8lb 12oz wonder. Nosiree. Not me in my naive motherhood fantasies. OC was the biggest child in the nursery. Sure, there were a set of twins. But then again...there were other single babies. But they simply paled in comparison to OC.
We arrived at the hospital extremely early in the morning. I remember the nurse testing the fluid to make sure my water broke. And that I just didn't wet myself.
Now, keep in mind, I'm an amateur. But I was damn sure I didn't wet myself. *eye roll*
Seriously.
Being first, I had first choice option for birthing room. Go me!!! And I picked the largest corner room with pretty decor. I wanted OC to arrive in style. She did.
After three stadiol shots. Two epidurals. And several hours of watching my graph lines spike and their brilliant father exclaim..."Here comes another one!"
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
She was such a good baby. On schedule. Easy to potty train. Smart as hell. A memory that amazed many a teacher. Girl has it going on. *nodding*
Happy Birthday, Baby!!!
Love you!
Mama*
(btw, OC has had a major hair cut since this picture was taken in August. I'll try and post a newer version later)

OLA Convention

I've been asked to speak at the Annual OLA (Oklahoma Library Association) Convention in April 2009!!! I am SO excited! *dancing*
(Note: My numerous exclamation points. heh)

I attended in 2007 and enjoyed the author panels immensely. And now I'm going to be ON one? HOLY COW!!! *dancing some more*
Plans will firm up in about a month. Then I'll know who I'll be joining and all that good stuff. But for now?
I'm dancing.
Grins*

Monday, October 27, 2008

Inside an author's head

What goes on up there, anyway?
Does Nora dream of Roarke? Is her husband jealous? Is Lora Leigh engineering the next hot hero? Is Stephen King wondering what darling to murder in his latest novel? Is Mary Janice Davidson shoe shopping so she knows EXACTLY which pair Betsy will drool over in her next installment? Is Jill Monroe pondering her next popular Author Talk, sucking down a Sonic soda, or pondering her next sexy book? Is Tori feeling good today? Or is she as disgusted as I am with the cold weather? Is Rene going to do NaNoWriMo again? Will she WIN again? Is Lyvvie throwing together an uber awesome Bento? Or is she about to kill a couple of guys who are helping with the new kitchen?
As for me...
Will MC remember to get all her homework she missed Friday because she was sick? Will there be three hours of homework awaiting me when I arrive home? Will it get above 37 today??? Why can't I get "If I drown, will you drop the charges?" out of my head? (Blame this on a weird ass dream I had right before I woke up. It's humorous, if a bit macabre.) Should I bring my notebooks in and type up my notes for my next four-book series? Will my review for One Enchanted Evening be in the next Romantic Times issue? Should I be working on SWTWC or WATS right now instead of rambling on about the nonsense between my ears?
Yeah.
Probably.
Grins*

Friday, October 24, 2008

*sigh*

I have to go home in thirteen minutes to six teenage girl children.
Oldest Chicken's birthday isn't until Tuesday, but she is having friends over tonight. I assured her that they would be dropped off at their collective homes at noon tomorrow.
Help.
Me.
You know...instead of trying to ignore (and failing miserably) several teenage girls...I should be out kicking up my heels. *grins*
Shaking that ass. Imbibing a few cocktails (or more than a few). But I find myself going out less and less.
And let me say, it wasn't a whole lot of times to begin with.
pft
I think I need to go out in November. Snag an evening and shake it by its collar. Bend it to my will. See what happens. Become reacquainted with Captain Morgan. hehehe
But for now...
*sigh*
Grins*

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Librarian Female Archetype and the Boy Catalog

Some lovely somebody found my blog through searching the words "Librarian Female Archetype." Now. I'm curious as to what the "librarian archetype" would be?
Tight ass bun on the back of woman's head? High ruffled collar buttoned up to throat? Pencil skirt with sensible black loafers?
*shuddering*
Screw. That.
I'm a Librarian Female. *grins* And never a bun has touched the back of my head. I don't like things on my throat. And I've never worn a damn pencil skirt in my life.
I am, in fact, wearing my black bondage sandals. LOL
The answer to your unasked question is...NO. I'm not into that lifestyle. But that's what my black shiny strappy shoes remind me of. (Guess we all know what I think about a majority of the time.) And during the warmer months I go sleeveless where one of my tattoos shows. ALL of the customers love it. I've received compliments from kids up to the elderly.
Librarian archetype?
heh
Bite me.

Now for the boy catalog. It seems to me with all the hormonal teenage girls running around in my home that I should have SOME say as to who they will eventually procreate with. I'm just saying. :)~~
There's a certain boy who I think would make great son-in-law material. *whistling*
He's smart. Noticed I did something with my hair. And likes Middle Chicken. He's obviously three for three.
I suppose I'll bide my time on this one. MC seems to become highly perturbed when I don't refer to this boy by name but simply..."my future son-in-law."
lmao
Grins*

Friday, October 17, 2008

MIDDLE CHICKEN'S 14TH BIRTHDAY!!!


Someday, I will look back on this blog's archives and wonder how in the hell I didn't lose my mind in October.
But I digress.
Middle Chicken's birthday is Monday. She will be fourteen. *sigh* Yeah. Fourteen. Sheesh.
They're on Fall Break right now. I took off half a day yesterday to have MC's hair done. Also got some highlights for myself. *grins* I'm shameless like that.
Anyway...MC decides she wants blond hair (she's strawberry blond) with black tips and pink bangs.
And let it be so.
Yeah. Seriously. And it rocks. :)~~
So let's take a walk down memory lane with MC.
First, she could not have been completely more opposite as a baby (and now...for those keeping track) than OC. OC is a morning person. MC can sleep until three in the afternoon on weekends. OC will wear whatever and whenever. MC accessorizes.
I'm not exaggerating.
MC is a creative force with all sorts of ideas and thoughts racing through her head at the speed of light, I'm quite sure. She's a mixture of so many opposites that it's hard to pin her down.
She can be inconsiderate but then go out of her way to do something nice for someone. She can be snarky *whistling* but then cry over a commercial. (She assures me the ceiling leaks. *eye roll*)
She's smart as hell but struggles with her academics occasionally.
MC is brilliant and off-kilter.
That's why I love her so.
Happy Birthday, baby.
Mom*

Monday, October 13, 2008

Page 113

I warned her. She can't say I didn't.
OC decided to do a book report on "One Enchanted Evening." *smile*
And it's comparatively mild to other books I've written. I gave the thumbs up.

OC will be in therapy for years to come, my friends.
She comes home Thursday waving the book around and saying "Page 113! I had to quit reading. I think I'm scarred for life."
I, of course, am rolling.
I explain that it's a romance. These things happen. She asks if they will happen again. Yes, I reply. At least once more. I grin. Possibly twice.
OC appears to consider fainting but sucks it up.
Not only does the infamous Page 113 circulate amongst my children, apparently it also circulates to the girls' friends at school.
"She ached for him"? OC demanded. She shudders. "Eww."
I reply, they are adults. They ache. Get over it.
MC chimes in and wonders how I know these things.
An eerie silence falls over the entire living room.
"I don't want to know!" They scream in unison.
heh
Grins*

Tickle me

When I laugh, I am defenseless. Utterly wrapped up in whatever deliciousness tickled me in the first place. Tears stream. Noses snort. It's a helluva good time.
That's how I spent my weekend.

My girls have wicked senses of humor. And even though I am extremely unfond of their father, the man did have a great sense of humor. The girls are doubly blessed.

I let the girls watch "Knocked Up". Yep, I did. And there are a couple of extremely funny scenes in there. Plus, it has a fantasic ending. In summation...it redeemed itself. But I digress.
In one of the scenes the characters catch pink eye from each other. If you've seen the movie, you know what I'm talking about.
This rapidly spins out of control when MC tells OC that she's going to give her pink eye. Then she looks over at me and says the same. I inform her that I better NEVER end up the pink eye and that even if OC did it, I would blame MC.
She is aghast.
She's spouts off...you wouldn't know WHO did it.
Then I tell them that I'd get a DNA sample. But by this time I'm laughing so hard that I can barely breathe, much less retort.
Let's just say that it took me half an hour to regain any sort of composure. The chickens can attest to that.

Oh.
Also wrote a buttload on my next four book series.
Grins*

Thursday, October 09, 2008

The Write Stuff

Okay. It has a high cheese factor, but I am feeling GOOD!!!

And I've come to realize that I MUST multi-task/write. I can't simply work on one book and be well with it. Just doesn't happen.
When I wrote Earth Goddess, I always had WATS in the wings. Which, by the way, is over HALFWAY finished! Can I get a "Woo Woo"?
heh

Then when I finished Earth Goddess and picked WATS back up, I realized I needed something else to work on. So out came SWTWC. Which I am DIGGING!
And since I have strong masochistic tendencies, I've also started notes on my next four book series.
*grins*
Yeah.

And I haven't hit a block or a wall or anything. I'm trucking along writing my stuff which I'm enjoying the hell out of. It's fantastic.
Literary bliss.
*shaking my ass to and fro*
Yeah.
It's THAT good.
lmao
Grins*

Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Holy shit. Twenty years.

My high school reunion people have their own MySpace. And today they blogged about our twentieth reunion and tentative date.

TWENTY YEAR REUNION

Yeah. That deserves caps. Isn't that crazy? I mean, I KNOW twenty years has passed. Or at least my body does. Hell, I have a child in high school and two in middle school. So it's not like I pulled a Rip VanWinkle these past two decades.

But twenty years.
Wow.

It's hard to wrap my mind around. Extremely surreal.
Once upon a time, I thought I'd never graduate. Then I did. I thought I'd never get married. Then I did. I thought I'd never have children. Then I did. And knocking on forty?
*laughing*
I have it together a hell of a lot better than I did two decades ago.

Shawnee's Twentieth High School Reunion???
Bring it on.
Grins*

Saturday, October 04, 2008

Oldest Chicken thinks I'm crazy

BC had three friends over last night after school to partake of cake and act like crazy women. SIX teenage girls at my house yesterday.
The cats were smart. They got the hell out of Dodge.
Me? I wrote 3000 words on SWTWC. Woo!
That worked out to around six or seven pages. Then I had a short scene that I needed to write.

I decided to ask OC to give it a gander and see what she thought. Keep in mind...NO ONE reads my mss before they're done. Not because I'm some control freak who can't let anyone see unfinished work. Nope. No one wants to read them. So I simply work on them until they're done. Edit. Edit some more. Submit. That simple.
But I just had the URGE for someone else to read what I wrote. OC agreed.
There were a couple of iffy parts. LMAO
I forget that there were references to sex in one part of a dialogue.
So OC finishes, and I ask her...what did you think of B, the hero? I personally think he's a bit of an ass. And told her that I didn't think he would be like that.
OC looks at me and says...well, that's a bit freaky. Don't you KNOW what he's like?
*shrug*
Not really. Parts of him, of course. Others? Nope. A mystery to you and me both.
So it bothered me. I'm nothing, if not a dweller.
And on the way to work this morning (yeah, I had to work on Saturday. Doesn't that just blow?), I realized that he's a bit like one of my favorite movie characters.
Ah. Gotcha.
And suddenly I see the light at the end of the tunnel and note the direction said character will take.
*grins*
Makes me happy.
For now.
Grins*

Thursday, October 02, 2008

BABY CHICKEN'S 13TH BIRTHDAY!!!




Yes. *grins*
It's true.
The baby chicken was born at 8:11, thirteen years ago today, at the hospital in Moreno Valley, California.
Let's see.
I remember being in labor for hmmmmmm...two days. Yeah. That was nine kinds of fun. And the little chicken's water didn't break. Which, in itself, seems rather odd to me. Here Oldest Chicken's and Middle Chicken's water both broke at 5 am on a Thurs. I kid you not.
So I was expecting something similar.
Ha.
And I say HA again.
So I lay there having these nice contractions. Okay, I was all bunched up and not happy at all with life. Anyway...the doc didn't want to give me any meds because we didn't know if my water was ever going to break.
It didn't.
So when the doc (an old Army doc, actually) came on call for the morning, he came in and took care of the breaking water business. I immediately went into "I'm having this baby right now!!!" mode. They give me a pain shot *snort*, and I remember looking at the clock on the other wall. He broke my water at around five til eight. At 8:11 am, Baby Chicken entered the world.
The pain medicine had NOT kicked in. That's all I'm saying. Because I remember BC popping out, and I looked up at the clock where the hands were blurring. The pain med was finally in effect.
Thank the patron saint of childbirthing (whoever that may be) that BC was the smallest of the three.
She was a cute little booger, no doubt.
Now she's this beautiful long-haired redhead. Time flies.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!
Love you!
Mom*