Check In

Sorry guys. I'm buried under work and utterly, mentally, exhausted. I joked to my coworker yesterday that I was suffering from boiled brain. Also aching physically because I put in some major hours in the garden last weekend (cut down three small trees, trimmed another four, plus weeded and mowed the backyard--half of which is all uphill--, etc.) I've got a couple of hydrangea to plant that I doubt is going to happen until next weekend.

As for the writing, I've had several false starts with the second of five planned new scenes, but made another attempt at it while sitting in my dentist's waiting room a couple of days ago that I think might stick. Haven't looked at it since, and don't think I will be until next weekend, because I brought home a huge-ass report to work on that will take all weekend and must be dealt with by Sunday night or I'll be so screwed re a very hard and fast deadline I'm up against.

Am I boring you yet? See why I stayed away? lol.

I finally remembered who Danny Gokey reminds me of!

What a surprise last night, eh?

Yeah, so, uhm, remember Ruben and Clay...? er, where was I going with this?

Oh, yeah, I love Danny's singing voice! Just loved that smokey texture to it when he hit certain notes. And I kept telling everyone he reminded of another (older) singer, except I could never remember the damn singer's name... until just now!

Michael McDonald.

I just loooooove Michael's singing voice. It's late-night-low-lights-warm-breeze-through-an-open-window-cool-cotton-sheets-wineglasses-on-the-bedside-table-clothes-strewn-on-the-floor-big-mirror-over-the-dresser-facing-the-bed-sweaty-dirty-all-night-long-sex sexy husky.




ETA: This video too! (Dang I wonder if iTunes has him singing this?)

DUCKS IN HEAVEN

Three women die together in an accident and go to heaven.

When they get there, St. Peter says, "We only have one rule here in heaven:
Don't step on the ducks!"

So they enter heaven, and sure enough, there are ducks all over the place.
It is almost impossible not to step on a duck, and although they try their best to avoid them, the first woman accidentally steps on one.

Along comes St. Peter with the ugliest man she ever saw.
St.Peter chains them together and says, "Your punishment for stepping on a duck is to spend eternity chained to this ugly man!"

The next day, the second woman steps accidentally on a duck and along comes St.Peter, who doesn't miss a thing. With him is another extremely ugly man.
He chains them together with the same admonishment as for the first woman.

The third woman has observed all this and, not wanting to be chained
For all eternity to an ugly man, is very, VERY careful where she steps.

She manages to go months without stepping on any ducks, but one day St.Peter comes up to her with the most handsome man she has ever laid eyes on.... very tall, long eyelashes, muscular.


St. Peter chains them together without saying a word.

The happy woman says, "I wonder what I did to deserve being chained to you for all of eternity?"

The guy says, "I don't know about you, but I stepped on a duck.

Pics from England.

It's mostly touristy stuff, although I thought I picked a couple of family pics too. But, with the touristy stuff I tried to get a little artsy-fartsy and was quite pleased with the results. There're several pics I want to get a large size print of and frame.
This first pic is one I'd like to frame. Probably crop the bottom a bit.(I don't know what the odd shaped building is, but that's London bridge to the left) That lone figure might be my son Dayan.



Closer pic of the bridge, that's the boy's head in the bottom left corner, and my brother in the jacket with the white across the shoulders. We went to London for one day to visit an aunt--a tight squeeze because we had to be back in Gloucester for my neice's birthday dinner/party at a restaurant that same evening-- but I at least wanted to go on the London Eye (huge ferris wheel) while in London.


Big Ben in the background. Dayan in the foreground. Brother wandering off. lol.


Pic taken from the Eye, to the ground. Forgot the name of that building.


This is another shot I'd like framed. Taken from the Eye: it's the pod in front of us.


Another favourite. i like how the frame of the carriage sort of mirrors Day's profile.


We went for a drive up to Stroud one day and stopped for a pint in a quaint little pub. My bro pulled over so I could gt a couple of pics of the valley below. Thought I'd downloaded a pic of two of the lovely little villages with the stone row houses and narrow lanes. But I didn't. :-/ They were staight out of a Catherine Cookson novel or an AE special. Charming. But I think I'd go a little crazy after awhile.


We were on our way to the city center from my mum's place and cut through the park. Not sure why the heck I downloaded this one I think I meant to download a pic of the boy and my neice at the other end of the park in front of the georgian rowhouse(the white buildings you see in the background, right side over Day's shoulder) .

Bad Writer, Very Bad Gardener

So I’ve been stressed, no secret. But it got to the point where my continuing exhaustion had me worrying that it was more than stress (chronic fatigue? The onset of type 2 Diabetes? Something more sinister?) All I knew was, I needed a rest, so I took yesterday and today off, and Monday is a statutory holiday. My only plan was to get 8 hours sleep every night and write.

The sleep thing is working out great! Woke up Thursday morning after 9 hours sleep totally refreshed and raring to go! (So I guess it was stress afterall).

The writing thing…. Not so much. So far. But I plan to get hopping on that on the weekend. In the meantime, I’m turning my attention to something else I’ve been neglecting:




Yes, gentle reader, that is my backyard. And not just a small problem patch. It pretty much all looks like that. To make matters worse, my next door neighbour (the one I'm immediately adjacent to, not the one where the driveways divide our properties) has two different lawnservices, one to mow/trim, and one to fertilization/weed control. So my yard looks even more like shit in comparison.

I was toying with hiring a service of fertilization/weed control, but I'm already shelling out $$$ to get the damn tree trimmed. So I'll be doing it myself this year, and we'll see how it goes.

Yesterday I did some cleaning up of the yard--aforementioned tree is dropping branches (big branches!)like crazy--plus it was very windy in the morning with a lot of debris flying around, and garbage cans over turned, etc. Then it was off tothe bank and library, and grabbed some brekkie at Tim Hortons (holy crap their breakfast sandwiches are to die for, but the calorie/fat count(500cal/37grams)means I indulge about once a year or risk coronary failure.)

Then I hit 2 different gardening centers and came away with a edger/trimmer, a weeder, a garden rake, some grass fertilizer, top-soil, grass seeds and handheld dispenser, and this bush (Flaming Mound Spirea)



that I hope adds a little more colour to the back of the yard. I'll probably buy a few more. Not sure whether I'm planting in the back or front (btw, the front yard, looks just fine, except the flowerbed needs tidying up). They say this is not the weekend to plant flowers because of it’s going to drop to -1 degrees overnight on the weekend, so I’ll figure out the flower thing this week, and get hopping on the flowerbeds next weekend.

Today's plan of action:

1. Weeding
2. Mowing (because I’ll have to wait a bit to mow the *hopefully* new growth)
3. Aerate
4. Add topsoil to the bare patches and to level out the yard
5. Seed and add fertilizer.
6. Give a light watering (supposed to rain tomorrow).
7. Go do groceries
8. Maybe write.
9. Maybe, I might whip over to the garden center again and pick up a roll or two of sod, there’s one particularly bad bare patch in the garden (that is, it’s bare of grass, but has plenty O dandelions) that I’m not sure seeding is going to save. A couple of years ago, we raked up all the leaves in the yard, but didn’t bag them up for disposal. The heap of leaves sat there all winter, and in the spring when we did rake them up, we found a bare muddy patch of earth. I'm concerned that the neighbour's cats will find the de-weeded patch more enticing than their usual litter box (had a huge problem with that last year). :-/

Since I downloaded the picture of the yard, I also downloaded some pics from our trip to England over Christmas, but I’ll post those tomorrow.

Wish me luck!

*

Around the water cooler with Jaye

I’ve only watched this season’s Celebrity Apprentice sporadically, but Annie Duke should have won, not Joan. Kudos to Joan for having the enery/stamina to make it to the final, and, for what it’s worth, while I haven’t necessarily been a fan of Joan, I did enjoy her biting humor and the fact that she made it to the top of a man’s game.

But Joan’s behaviour on CA was straight up grade A beeyaitch. Especially towards Annie. Not sayin Annie was totally innocent, but Joan said some pretty despicable things, turned the waterworks on and off at will and then acted all befuddled as to why anyone would be pissed off at her, because it was all water under the bridge to her. ugh.

Though Joan did have a few funny zingers towards Brandy and Clint. ("If Clint walked into a bar, he'd pick up himself.")

But that’s besides the point!!!

Anyhaterfromhaterville, seems Joan made some enemies (and deservedly, so).

On to American Idol... ‘K, we all know it’s the Adam Lambert Show this season. Although, I’ll reserve some doubt as to whether he’ll win or not for a number of reasons. This season just has a very ‘scripted’ feel to it.

Anywhocares, Kris is in the top two!?! wtf. I like the way Kris makes every song uniquely his own--my son calls it the granola touch. lol—but seriously, the guy does not have the vocal chops of Danny or Allison. And while I thought Danny should have packed his ass home last week because of that ill-advise screech, he certainly did not deserve to go home this week! Also, I did notice that Kris’ visit back home had the hugest crowds. Yeah, it could be all in the editing, but next week will be interesting.

Next up: StarTrek. Loved the movie. I mean at one point in the theater I actually had the thought: I love this movie! I will be in line for the next one, and I will buy the DVD. Having said that, I did have quibbles. The bad guy(s) were so one-dimensional. What a waste of Eric Bana. And I didn’t buy this new version of the Vulcans. I know many thought the kiss between Spock and Uhura was teh hawtness, but even with the steamy co-ed decontamination shower scenes with the sexed up T’pol from Enterprise ringing in my head, I still didn’t buy it. And lastly, this was seriously a pop-corn movie. I miss the anvilious moral lesson that’s the hallmark of the Star Trek franchise.

Second lastly, The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie. I enjoyed the book, it’s a keeper and I’ll probably check out the next in the series. I like the large cast of fairly fleshed-out characters and that there was more to the book besides the romance even though the romance was always the focus. I loved Ian (really loved him), and really like Beth, and loved their courtship. The sequel-bait ran hot and heavy through the book, though, and I’m not sure it needed to be so obvious. The story was a strong B for me. I was probably more anxious to read it beforehand, than I was during the read—that emotional urgency was missing for me from some reason. But it was definitely worth the read. And maybe it did make more of an impression on me than I though because I’m avoiding reading another historical for the time being.

Finally, Supernatural. I tuned out early this season. Just wasn’t feeling the whole Angel thing, but friends who were still watching told me that it’s been really good the last several episodes. I had planned to get the season DVD, regardless, but I will be watching tonight’s episode because I suspect it’s going to seriously kick ass. One thing about Supernatural, the writing, characterization and arcs are well-thought out and consistent, unlike some other stupid WB ::coughlame-assSmallvillecoughcough:: series that I stopped watching years ago, but the boy keeps watching, just to rant about damn show as far as I can discern. Walk away, I say ::to the soundtrack of some sappy emo rock music::

One more thing – Anyone else out there watching Southland? I think it kicks ass. Very enjoyable. The same peeps behind it as ER. If I have one reservation, it's that Regina King might not find the time to continue to do the voices of Riley and Huey on Boondocks.

Happy Mothers' Day!

Hope the kids/significant other spoils ya! And take it easy today. :-)



ETA: This poem is for all you phenomenal mothers (and women) out there:

PHENOMENAL WOMAN
by Maya Angelou



Pretty women wonder where my secret lies
I'm not cute or built to suit a fashion model's size
But when I start to tell them
They think I'm telling lies.
I say,
It's in the reach of my arms
The span of my hips,
The stride of my step,
The curl of my lips.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

I walk into a room
Just as cool as you please,
And to a man,
The fellows stand or
Fall down on their knees.
Then they swarm around me,
A hive of honey bees.
I say,
It's the fire in my eyes
And the flash of my teeth,
The swing of my waist,
And the joy in my feet.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Men themselves have wondered
What they see in me.
They try so much
But they can't touch
My inner mystery.
When I try to show them,
They say they still can't see.
I say
It's in the arch of my back,
The sun of my smile,
The ride of my breasts,
The grace of my style.
I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.
I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud.
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
I say,
It's in the click of my heels,
The bend of my hair,
The palm of my hand,
The need of my care,
'Cause I'm a woman
Phenomenally.
Phenomenal woman,
That's me.

from And Still I Rise by Maya Angelou
copyright © 1978 by Maya Angelou.

Writing Progress

I downloaded stuff from the Quickpad today. Only 5 pages, not great, but not bad. It was rough, so I work on smoothing/fleshing it out. Wasted a crap load of time on Google doing searches on South America and the Amazon. 99.5% of everything I found out didn't end up in the scene!! But I saved the links because this book will be part of a series and I might need that info in the future.

The first new addtional scene is now pretty much down, and I'm darn happy with the way it turned out. (I feared it was going to border on being filler.) Of oourse another interesting shifter showed up. Doubt he'll show again is this book, since he'll stay in Ecaudor, while Nate and Mitch move on, but Alejandro seems the type to show up in other books down the line, and maybe even his own story...

So that's one scene down, and four to go...

It's 2:30am, time to hit the sack. The kid is taking me to brunch and to see Star Trek tomorrow if i don't get to sleep now, I'll do face plant in my French Toast and saw logs during the movie. ;)

That Name Is Taken

I just skimmed by Dear Author and read the First Page submission they have up (authors can submit the first page of their manuscript for feedback from DA visitors).

The thing that struck with feedback on this one, was how many people felt that the protagonist's name was a red flag because it's the same name as the female lead in the Twilight books.

I sort of don't get this. I know you can have a strong emotional/visceral reaction or attachment to certain names, and I guess it's a compliment to an author that if they create character that resonates so strongly with their readership that *that* name forevermore while spring that character to mind first and foremost. Still, I think folks should still be open to other characters (& people) sharing the name in question.

For the record, Roark is *not* unquestionably reserved because of JD Robert's In Death books, and Belle, if I gave it a second thought, would be Beauty from Beauty and the Beast, and not Bella from Twilight. Sure Scarlet brings to mind Gone with the Wind, and Homer a buffoonish, cartoon ch

aracter, or classic Greek poet, but it's the authors' choice to make that association either work, giving added texture to the character/story, or making their character so real and their story so complex that I completely forget about the additional baggage.

And I'm willing to give them that chance.

The Shoe Pledge (joke)

Alright ladies, it's that time of year once again!!! I think we need to be reminded of a few things. So my sisters, PLEASE, raise your big toes and repeat after me below....

The Open Toed Shoe Pledge

As a member of the Cute Girl Sisterhood, I pledge to follow the Rules when wearing sandals and other open-toe shoes:

I promise to always wear sandals that fit. My toes will not hang over and touch the ground, nor will my heels spill over the backs. And the sides and tops of my feet will not pudge out between the straps.

I will go polish-free or vow to keep the polish fresh, intact and chip-free. I will not cheat and just touch up my big toe.

I will sand down any mounds of skin before they turn hard and yellow.


I will shave the hairs off my big toe.

I won't wear pantyhose even if my misinformed girlfriend, coworker, mother, sister tells me the toe seam really will stay under my toes if I tuck it there.

If a strap breaks, I won't duct-tape, pin, glue or tuck it back into place hoping it will stay put.. I will get my shoe fixed or toss it.

I will not live in corn denial; rather I will lean on my good friend Dr. Scholl's if my feet need him.

I will resist the urge to buy jelly shoes at Payless for the low, low price of $4.99 even if my feet are small enough to fit into the kids' sizes. This is out of concern for my safety, and the safety of others. No one can walk properly when standing in a pool of sweat and I would hate to take someone down with me as I fall and break my ankle.

I will take my toe ring off toward the end of the day if my toes swell and begin to look like Vienna sausages.

I will be brutally honest with my girlfriend/sister/coworker when she asks me if her feet are too ugly to wear sandals. Someone has to tell her that hertoes are as long as my fingers and no sandal makes creepy feet look good.

I will promise if I wear flip flops that I will ensure that they actually flip and flop, making the correct noise while walking and I will swear NOT to slide or drag my feet while wearing them.

I will promise to go to my local nail salon at least once per season and have a real pedicure (they are about $25 or $35 and worth EVERY penny).

I will promise to throw away any white/off-white sandals that show signs of wear... nothing is tackier than dirty white sandals..

Two Things

Once again, Adam Lambert owned American Idol last time. This season is ridiculous. There really is *no competition* this year.

I do believe Gokey will be Go-keying home. Rock is soooo not his thing. And unlike the judges I thought Kris did a good job. One judge said he had the ability to make every song is own, and it's true.

The duets, didn't do it (heh) for me. I was meh for both of them. Allision, should have picked a different song, she needed something with a bit more range. Her earlier performance of Papa Was A Rolling Stone would have been perfect.

Adam for the win, toss up between Allison and Kris, she has the stronger voice and stage presence, but he gives a solid performance and certainly has his own sound.


If you want more of me blathering, I'm over at Southern Fried Chicas today talking about sheep-in-wolves-clothing type characters.

**ETA: I can't believe they sent home Allison instead of Gokey? WTF? Seriously?
*

Cooter and Gomer. (joke)

Stanley died in a fire and his body was burned pretty badly.

The morgue needed someone to identify the body, so they sent for his two best friends, Cooter and Gomer.

The three men had always done everything together.

Cooter arrived first, and when the mortician pulled back the sheet Cooter said, 'Yup, his face is burned up pretty bad. You better roll him over.'

The mortician rolled him over and Cooter said, 'Nope, ain't Stanley.'

The mortician thought this was rather strange.

So he brought Gomer in to confirm the identity of the body.

Gomer looked at the body and said, 'Yup, he's pretty well burnt up. Roll him over.'

The mortician rolled him over and Gomer said, 'No, it ain't Stanley '

The mortician asked, 'How can you tell?'

Gomer said, 'Well, Stanley had two azzholes.'

'What? He had two azzholes?' asked the mortician.

'Yup, we never seen 'em, but everybody used to say: 'There's Stanley with them two azzholes.'

Game Plan

The whining didn't last. I've just had a couple of very stressful weeks and last thing I wanted to do was go back a rework the mss, heck I've done precious little work on the current mss beside fleshing out the outline/back-story.

N E Way...

While running errands yesterday, I figured on a possible five new scenes I could add to the story to *hopefully* address my editor's concerns.

I should give myself a deadline, shouldn't I? Even though, given my workload I doubt I'll make it. :/ But it may at least give me the impetus to make that push.

If there's good news to found in all of this (aside from the fact it wasn't an outright rejection and my editor is still very interested in seeing it after the revisions), it's that the story as it stands now is approximately 44K words. If the new scenes bring that count up to 60K this book will be eligible for print. Since it looks like Mitch's story will most likely hit the 60K mark, that would be perfect.

Perfect Timing

Looks like yesterday was the right day to post online again. I did say I’d try and have something more substantial to say today. Unfortunately it isn’t quite what I had in mind.

Heard from my editor this morning (didn’t think she’d get back to me for another couple of weeks). Anywho, the response is mixed. She really likes the story, enjoyed reading it and thought it was very entertaining, but can’t offer for it ‘as is’ because she has some very valid concerns that need addressing. The fleshing-out of the world-building, and the heroine’s character wouldn’t be that difficult to fix. The kicker is the romance. She wants to see more of the H/h falling in love and getting to know each other. Fair enough, but it’s also the kicker.

No matter how I approach that problem, it’s going to need more than the fleshing out/expansion she’s suggesting. It’s going to require major reworking of the story because of the suspense (for want of a better word) plotline. Since the hero is on a mission of revenge, the suspense really can’t be pushed to the backburner while the romance builds. If I have them meet before they get on board, that will change the dynamic of so much as well regarding the mate thing.

I know I can do it, but I want to? Not in terms of ‘this is my preeeecious story, I cannot change perfection!’, but more from a place where I’m just not sure if I’m feeling up to the effort of dismantling this story and putting back together again.

**Of course, despite all the whining in this post, I’m still sitting here thinking about just how I could address the problem with the least amount of painful/time-consuming rewrites.

Swine Flu

click the pic for a larger, easier to read, version.

Sorry for the absence. Between work demands and somehow managing to pull a muscle in my lowerback, I've been chillin away from the laptop. I'll try post something interesting this weekend. Laters