January 19, 2006

The wonderful thing about being a writer is that you can pretty much be God in your books. Creator, destroyer, manager, etc… That’s not to say that your characters don’t have free will–and exercise it once in awhile–’cause they do.

Which brings me to my problem. I’m stuck. I’ve got my heroine in a really bad place. Really bad. There’s no escape.

So how am I going to get her out?

My husband suggested an earthquake. Wouldn’t that be convenient? I’m God here, so I could make it happen. But will I? No.

The problem is getting her out of her mess without resorting to “conveniences.” But I’ve gotten her in a pretty good mess. So I don’t know.

For the writers out there…what do you do when there’s no calvary in sight?

January 19, 2006

Trish tagged me, so now I have something to write about other than my hair problems.

What were you doing ten years ago?
Ten years ago exactly was when I found out I was pregnant with my first child! I was working at a health plan at the time and in the last semester of my MBA.

What were you doing one year ago?
Getting ready for my dad’s funeral. He died on January 18, 2005.

Five snacks you enjoy…
Popcorn with lots of real butter
Nachos
Chocolate chip cookie dough
Almond-milk smoothie with bananas (when I’m good and being raw)
Cheetos (curly not crunchy!)

Five songs to which you know all the lyrics….
Every track on the original Phantom of the Opera 2-disc soundtrack
Most Christmas songs (including Twelve Days of Christmas)
(that’s more than five, I know…)

Five things you would do if you were a millionaire…
Put an addition on my house
Travel to Italy, Angkor Wat, and Japan (see my Seven List Meme!)
Help fund a halfway house for abused children
Buy a new car
Buy more stocks

Five bad habits…
Biting my nails
Not exercising
“Forgetting” to floss every other day
Letting my husband clean the bathrooms (that’s not really a bad habit, is it?)
Eating in bed (I don’t think this is a bad habit either, but my mother would)

Five things I love to do…
Read
Sleep in or nap
Write
Eat
Stay in a five-star hotel

Five things you would never buy or wear again…
A Tom Cruise movie
Gauchos (I may have to take this back as they are coming back!)
Bows in my hair a la Madonna in the ’80s
Heels over three inches high
Pantyhose

Five favorite toys…
Computer
(I dunno….I don’t have a lot of toys, really)
My Pink Pearl (and I don’t mean eraser!)

Five people I’m tagging…
Jana
Elly
Janice
Charity
(how about four? Everyone else has already been tagged!)

January 16, 2006

Well, here’s the before and after pics, after a fashion:

(my 4 year old daughter took the after picture…I know it’s blurry, but you get the idea)

(PS note my cross–the same in both pics. That was one of my congratulations-for-getting-a-book-contract presents I bought myself.)

It’s not that I hate the shorty cut, it’s just that it takes too much time to do it! And it never stays the way I want it for more than 30 minutes.

When I get another better pic of the shorty cut, I’ll post it.

January 11, 2006

Well, now. I’m strutting around prouder than a peacock ’cause my dear husband, who laid down the keyboard tracks on one song for a local band’s release CD, has had his work called exactly that: best keyboard in Americana on Garageband.com! (scroll to the bottom of the page) For three weeks in a row!

For those who are interested, the band is The Matt Keil Band, and their CD is being released on February 9.

January 9, 2006

Well, today I did it! Signed my first publishing contracts with my lucky pen.

(Yes I got my hair cut. That’s a totally different story. Talk about Big Regrets.)