Crash, Burn!

The night before my birthday, my laptop decided it didn't want to work anymore. Luckily I had downloaded my recent manuscripts to a loop I use for that purpose. So those are safe, but I can't tell how much more I need off that machine. My emails. I need them. I manage a blog for my writers' group and all the email addresses are saved there along with some bios I had them send to me. Geez! This is such a pain. Thankfully I still have my trusty desk stop. Only thing is it's so slooowww.

Well, luckily (again) my laptop is still under warranty. I was smart enough to purchase an extended warranty will I bought it 2-1/2 years go. Hard to believe it has been that long. Dell is sending a new harddrive out. I can only hope it works and I don't have to go to Orlando without it.

Still I feel like the laptop betrayed me. I treated it so well and then it decided not to work or give me some clue that it was going to breakdown, anything! Must be male. :-)

Firsts in Living Color

Check out my post over at Romance Magicians. It's a special day for me.

Oh, I'm Tempted

The last few months, I've let my hair grow out a bit. I usually keep it just below the ears but I was curious to see if it would look better closer to my shoulders. All the time I see women with long hair -- sure most are skinny as a rail though some are curvy real women like me --and I think how feminine they look. I knew there would be a chance it would age me. Long hair does that.

BOY! Did it age me. I look horrible. It was a gradual change not for the good at all. I've been so tempted to cut my hair myself as I'm so tired of it. But since next week is my hair appointment, I guess I can wait. Then I'll get it all cut off...not too short. As overweight I've become, short-short hair would make me look like a watermelon with a plum on top.

TBR

My To Be Read pile is growing. Most of the books were given to me free and I've given some away without reading them, all in effort to cull the pile. In two weeks I'll have another big stack to read. The conference gives away tons of them. It's fun to get them. I'm always amazed by the number and the different types.

For Goodness Sakes! Grow Up!

I read online today about a man in Georgia (USA) who held his own mom at gun point. The reason? Because she wouldn’t iron his clothes. He was 29 years old. Personally, I believe at that age, he should be living on his own and definitely doing his own ironing.

I bet his mother was tired of picking up after him and putting up with his lazy butt. Then again she could be the lazy one. But for the man to say it’s women’s work, well, he’s the one who sounds a little backwards to me. Just my opinion. Besides, I don’t know all the facts.

Nowadays with so many women working outside the house, the male has to pitch in and help with the kids and housework. I know when my husband picks up after himself, it’s a big help. He even washes and dries his clothes. Not so much to help me but more so they’re “done right.” He’s a bit of a control freak.

Positively

I’ve been thinking about my decision last year of living a positive life. It didn’t quite work out. No finals. Plenty of requests but no sales. I thought I did everything right. Paid my registration and even bought my airline ticket for the conference in DC with the positive thought I would final in the Golden Heart and/or sale beforehand and have a pink ribbon on my name badge. Paying my registration and airline ticket along with expenses and hotel costs wasn’t a planned budget last year. Because of doing that, I had to cancel the conference I really wanted to go to the following October. So last year was a real bust and my positive outlook hit rock bottom.

Of course, here is where I should say, I must not have really thought positively or it would’ve worked. Weeelll, it’s not that simple. I did think positive and do most of the time. That’s why it hurts so bad when things don’t work out.

Have I depressed the crap out of you yet? That’s not really what this post is about. Not about being a downer but keeping the hope alive. Being positive isn’t easy. But what’s the use of being positive if I’m not willing to walk the walk, talk the talk. Okay. You’re now saying, when the heck is she getting to the point.

The point is, keeping a positive outlook is not the only way to get what you want. You have to believe it deep inside. So deep that you no longer have doubts it will happen. It’s more of when and let the Lord handle the how. I’ll keep working hard at improving. I'm more relaxed now because I will be published one day.

No Thanks

I was checking out the new releases in my current RT BookReviews magazine. One of the big name authors has a new book coming out about ghosts. There are few romance themes I dislike. One of them is ghosts, one or both protagonists.

Isn't That The Way It Goes?

I had problems with the internet the last few days and then last night the cable messed up. So I called my provider (same one for both) and made an appointment for a service guy to check it out. He actually showed up this morning. WOW! A Sunday and a holiday. I felt so bad. I should've told the provider he could could wait until Monday.

Well, he shows up and everything is working correctly. That makes it hard for him to find out what had happened. We decided they must've been working on the lines the last few days and probably finished up last night. Thus causing the cable to blank out several times. I apologized to the guy and he was nice about. He even gave me his name and home number in case I have anymore problems. Now that's customer service!

Too Much Yeast!

My simple repair to my finished paranormal has grown and grown until it has taken a life of its own. I took out the first three chpaters and rewrote parts of the fourth (now first) chapter. That way the readers would know who is who and what the heck is going on. By doing that, the relationship of the two main characters has morphed into a more interesting one. I never realized how deleting (actually cutting and saving elsewhere) three chapters can make such a change. I know I mention that the other day, but I'm still amazed.

I'm in the new chapter three (use to be six) and decided to change the POV from the girl's to the guy's. Plus I plan to add a scene where their lives are in jeopardy. I think it will spice up the book and keep it from dragging until they get to the cave scene. That's the scene my beta readers claim the story really shot off. Considering that's like three-quarters (before I deleted the first three chapters) into the book, I knew I needed to do something.

Only thing is, I have to finish this book before I go to Orlando. Then I can give it to my beta readers and ask them to read it again. Or to my critique partners. We'll see who has time and doesn't mind rereading it. Poor things.

Such A Fan

I came acros this new series I really like a lot. It's different in one way from most of what I watch. It's a Japanese anime. Check out VAMPIRE KNIGHT on Hulu.