Week 3

Hello everyone!

I wonder where the past week went. I was all set to stop being the beach bunny under her canvas tent and try to stick to home and get some work done. Managed on most fronts there, except on the work done part. In the blink of an eye, the days were gone and I hardly accomplished anything. Okay, you don't count edits as nothing - the galley for Storms in a Shot Glass came back and I also hit the first general issues edits on Walking on the Edge. Left to my previous work, I had to dredge up the mud of these stories' that had already settled into quietness. But the writer's mind is a remarkable thing - one or two prompts and you're right back to that world that you'd created a while ago, breathing in the scents, sights, and sounds of that universe, reuniting with those characters you thought you'd left to rest. And yeah too, getting back into the drama of it all! I don't think I've written a story with more drama than Storms in a Shot Glass! To think that there's just a little more than a month to go before these wacky characters are unleashed onto the world... Promo's slowly starting for this - catch the links in the Promo Maven section.

- Kid on the Block
...was left to his own devices this week. Found his creative spark - drew some really good stuff and even crafted a backstory to each drawing! Yeah, that's Mommy's boy all right! We may have hit on something there - I'll have more for you soon.

- Weepy Willow Woes
In the words of Willow:
Nolwynn took my memory out for a spin this week. Talk of nostalgia hitting hard - I was made to revisit haunts I had come up with seems like ages ago... Met people I became acquainted with so long ago and with whom I had virtually lost touch. What can you say - there is no Facebook for characters, is there?
Memories, memories... Now if only that girl would agree to look forward instead of back!

- WIPed out
If you count a contracted but as yet unreleased work still a WIP, then I'm totally wiped out! Worked on two sets of edits, and galley proofs have got to be the hardest thing ever! Talk of going over something for the hundredth time with a really fine-toothed comb, as it's the last chance for you to catch any issue before the copy goes to 'print'!
Add to it that you get first notes on another story - you haven't exactly gone wrong but there are avenues to make the ms better - sheer brain scramble. Still, I'm complaining but I'm glad I have it all (it was after all, Thanksgiving this week!). It means I've got work coming out and tell me if there is anything to beat that feeling!

- Back to the domestic goddess
The domestic non-goddess is making burgers tonight. That's one thing I never make wrong, and after the kids' being left to their own devices pretty much all week, can you say major Mommy guilt trip in under 2 seconds? I can, and trying to rectify it by getting to the blokes through the easiest route - that of their stomach!

- Hottie Alert
I may have been WIPed out this week, butt hat doesn't mean Willow isn't getting her case in and trying to make that chauvinist hero less of a chauvinist hero. I have a feeling she has a major crush on said hero, and when you know that he is supposed to look like the hottie featured down here, hmm, maybe you can understand where she's coming from!

Sam Worthington - latest Aussie hottie to hit the hottie radar! What is it with Australia? is it something in the water? Some magnetic field down under that gives totally gorgeous, yummy blokes on a regular basis? I first saw this guy on the Terminator Salvation poster. Who was he? Caught the movie, and as a recently-converted Terminator junkie, I was like, John Connor who? That's the impact of this guy, and now I'm really looking forward to Avatar. Yeah, he's young, in his early thirties, but man, do I (and many women too, lol) see the potential in that man! Already a great looking parcel, you can imagine him adding on a few years and some more experience on that face. And then, boom! Watch out!
Sam Worthington is the physical template of the hero of my current WIP - a hardened, street-savvy former boxing champion who's 'reformed' into a media station boss. And lol, I am definitely looking forward to writing that one!

- Promo Maven
Nolwynn Ardennes first interview as up this week at Love Romances and More blog. Check it out and read the very first excerpt of Storms in a Shot Glass!
Yesterday, I penned my monthly post at the Pop Culture Divas - Cop shows of old. Drop by and see which ones I watched when growing up.

That's it for me this week, folk!

Don't forget:

Live. Laugh. Love. XOXO

Week 1

Hey guys!

Today is Friday the 13th! And would you believe it? In the thick of summer, when we've been blazing like dry desert lizards in the scorching sun for the past week, today is rainy, windy, and cold. If I'm not mistaken, there's also some fog on the foresty, Forks town-like motorway that branches off our town. Talk of Nature getting in the element...

But for me, this week I'm facing another kind of gloom - revisions. And no, that's not book revisions (I wish... See how low I am?) but study revision. Have an exam on Monday (the last of the semester, thank goodness!) and it's driving me nuts. My hubby would say, when are you not nuts anyway, but he's not here and I am not gonna think of him impingin upon my groove!

So what else other madness is galore this week of Friday the thirteenth? Read on and you'll find out!

- Kid on the Block

Guys like to build. Ever wondered why on construction sites you find mostly men? I think it's got something to do with their need to be occupied, and also to show how good they are with their hands.

Kiddo is on summer break here, and in typical family tradition, we passed on a heirloom on this week. There's the great big Lego box that belonged to my brother and that was passed on to me when I was eight (read by that I wouldn't be tempted to just dump the tiny Lego parts into my toy cookery set. Sigh, I didn't burn stuff back then). So this Lego box gets passed on to my son now. Left him at my mom's on Tuesday, where the Lego treasure was unveiled, and three hours later, kiddo calls and goes, Mommy I made a monster truck with Lego and you gotta see it.

First of all, I have no idea how to make a monster truck. Second, I had no idea you could make monster trucks using said Lego pieces (all I made were tame little houses with the picket fence and big plastic tree in the yard). Third, there were wheels in that Lego set? My reply - cool, baby, all while I'm thinking, did my brain slow down somewhere in the past 2 decades or was it already slow in the first place...?

Men will be men - and that applies to six-year-old men-in-progress too. How on earth did he know he could make a monster truck with those pieces and how on earth did he even know how to build it? *shakes head* Uh, did someone say generation gap out there???

- Weepy Willow Woes

In the words of Willow:

What is it with that silly goose they've paired me with? I swear, that woman has no idea what time management means! Come on, I'm only asking for 2 or 3 uninterrupted hours of her time to put the story down. That ain't so hard to come by, innit? But no, she just keeps running all over the place, goin, yes Willow, soon. Well, how soon? I'm going nuts here trying to keep all the ideas in! And she's not even giving any chocolate around, going on her healthy summer living spree! Geez! What more do I need to yell in her crazy mind? Come on woman - I've got great ideas to help you make your male chauvinist hero into a... well, let's say less of a male chauvinist pig.
But does she listen? Noooooo!!!!

- Back to the domestic goddess

Burnt my finger when I was releasing the valve on my pressure cooker yesterday. So not gonna go into the recipe of the Beef Stroganov (that tasted good and didn't get burnt, thank God) because I absolutely abhorre the darn pressure cooker at the moment! Stupid contraption...

But next time I make it, you're on! It's becoming a staple around here, read that as - something she makes that doesn't either get burnt or turn out half-cooked that we can actually eat.

- Reading Log

For the first time ever in my life, I stopped reading a book mid-way because it was getting way too much for my nerves. Get this - Superromance; misfit couple; small town; lots of animals; single father with kids. Sounds like a pretty good deal, right? It was, for the first half. I literally drank the words in. But then the author hits the sagging middle, and you know she has to make her required Superromance word count. So there we go - a villain plops in from nowhere! And his motivation? Nada! He just wants to control because he can! I'm like, gimme a break! That sort of megalomaniac power-hungry overlord exists in sci-fi, paranormal, fantasy. Not in a a Superromance that takes place in a town of 123 people that no one has ever heard of! Totally threw me off, but still I read on, thinking maybe this is just a skid along the road. Two-thirds of the way in, the heroine's backstory conflict just pops out of the blue too, and there she goes - I love you but I cannot love you. Period. Nothing else, end of the discussion on her side. Hero goes - you'll be mine soon. And all I can think of is, why on earth does a guy like you want a woman who just had great sex with you but wants nothing more? She just told you your kids are good-for-nothings! That's supposed to be a hero??? Talk of awry GMC here! It all seemed to have been added in as an afterthought.

Picked up another from my TBR pile - a YA by Paullina Simons, Road to Paradise. Captivating and really flowing 1st person voice. Good plot too, about two girls going across the United States in their car. They pick up a hitchhiker along the way, despite their no hitchhiker rule, and there starts their trouble. Really intriguing story. The main character, Shelby, who's head we're in, is really well sketched and the author's voice flows really smoothly. I picked that one just to complete my pile last time I was at the library, didn't think I'd like it so much I'd get hooked on it. I mean come on - it may be YA, but it takes place in 1981. I wasn't even born then and 99 percent of the pop culture references in there was like, huh? I only knew the Bee Gees and Prince and Dynasty in that! Still, very good book - makes me eager to find more by the author.

- Style Dilemma
This one should be fun! You know how it's summer here? So that's the time of sandals and flip flops and yes, shoe shopping!! But, big dilemma. Just came across this totally gorgeous line and have no idea what to choose!

Ipanema Summer 2010 Collection, with some pieces designed by Gisele Bundchen in the GB Seeds collection. Had heard mostly of Ipanema's infamous bikinis before, didn't know they did such gorgeous sandals too. And to make matters even worse (or better, depends how you view it), they're an eco-friendly brand that use recycled material for their footwear and donate part of their sales proceeds on every pair of sandals to sustainable-environment organisations! I'm like, what's not to like here, eh? Now I'm spoilt for choice and can get only one pair (two if I sneak behind the hubby's back), but they're all gorgeous... How do I do this??? And what you see here is just liekthetip of the iceberg of that collection! Never saw such gorgeous colors on sandals!

- Hottie Alert

Just saw Star Trek over the past weekend, mostly as a prod from the hubby because I have never watched TV's Star Trek (not the original anyway. I did catch some of The New Generation with Patrick Stewart but that wasn't the 'real' Star Trek apparently!) So yes, I knew who Spock was, always thought he looked kinda weird, but Holy Cow - that was Zachary Quinto there! The world's sexiest psychopathic serial killer (I always thought Sylar was the best-looking on Heroes, and frankly, take him out and you get what? Boyish-faced Peter replicating everyone's power?)

So the hottie of the week is Zachary Quinto! Love those eyes, and that intensity... *puddle of goo*

- Promo Maven

No promo opp slotted this week because of the darn exams, but I should be back in the whilrwind next week.

Don't forget:

Live. Laugh. Love. XOXO