Got Ink Thumb?

I've been reading a book on and off today (no surprise there, huh?) and noticed the side of my left thumb was getting a black hue to it. It made me remember when I first started writing some years ago. I couldn't afford a computer and would only use a manual typewriter I owned when I finished a first draft of a chapter. And the company I worked at hadn't become modernized yet. So I did a lot of writing with pencil and pen. I had ink and graphite all on my fingers. No one had a doubt I was a pencil pusher. LOL! But I never mind having the ink from a book on my fingers and don't.

I love books. Reading them and owning them. Over the years I finally learned to narrow down the ones I keep. I estimate I read (not always all the way through - time is too precious to waste it on a book that doesn't satisfy) around 250 books a year.

Yep, I narrowed it down to the authors I can't miss their books. I keep Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunters and Knights books. Now I keep Anne Stuart's and a couple new authors I've come across. The only author I started reading over twenty years and still keep every one of her books is Linda Howard's.

Thank you, Linda.

Music and Writing

A couple weeks ago at my writers' meeting, Laura Hayden, a talented published author, presented a program about using music to set the mood for writing different scenes in our currents WIPs.

It was amazing how it worked. If her program is picked for the RWA National conference in 2009, be sure to attend. You won't regret it.

One of the things I realized during the program was that I'm one of the few who could listen to music with words and still write, like I'm doing now. John Mayer is one of my favorites.

Check it out.

Counting

Okay, I typed five pages today. Thy name is procrastination. LOL!

Of course, writing those five pages didn't take all day. I watched my taped episodes of General Hospital, fixed breakfast (toast), looked up information on the Six Stage Plot Structure, drove to the nearest Chinese restaurant for lunch and brought it back, read emails several times, checked out a few websites and blogs... You get the idea. :-)

I'm proud to say I didn't play Spider Solitaire once.

Taking a Day to Write!

I took off work Friday! I'm so looking forward to writing all day. No husband. He will be at work. HaHa! That means, no TV disturbing me. Plus being a long weekend, I should get a lot written. Yeah! So we'll see. I'll report in and let you know.

Love Those Westerns!

I can't wait for this fall when Ed Harris's APPALOOSA comes to the theaters. Mr. Harris is a wonderful actor and not hard on the eyes at all. Speaking of eyes, he has a beautiful blue pair. LOL! The movie also has Viggo Mortensen, Renee Zellweger, and Jeremy Irons. Great cast. Check out the trailer.

Sorry, Acheron

After reading Sherrilyn Kenyon's ACHERON, I was talking with a friend of mine about the book and how we would love some time with the hero, Acheron. Then I told my friend I felt kind of bad about wanting to use him for my own gratification. You know, he'd been used and abused so badly in the beginning of the book.

Yeah, yeah, I know. He's a fictional character. But Sherri does such a good job. She makes you feel sorry for him, even want to protect him. Now I call that writing! LOL!

Anyway, fiction or not, I have to say, sorry, Acheron. I shouldn't think of you as a piece of meat to lust over. You proved yourself to be a true hero and I look forward to you showing up in more Dark Hunter books.

Guilty Pleasures

I love to read Harlequin's Presents books. They're delightful little books packed with sexual tension and good old fashion alpha males. A lot of the books I read (paranormals), the guys aren't the type I would want to meet in real life. I would probably piss them off by telling them to get over themselves. So you wonder why do I like the alpha males? Because in every one of the books, the males find themselves begging for the female to love/stay/give it over. Yeah. That's the way it should be. LOL!

Now that Silhouette is following suite in their Desire line, I've been picking those up. They're similar but set in the USA and hotter. Oh, yeeeaahh.

Favorite Commercial

This is my favorite commercial. If only it was so simple...LOL!

Making and Keeping Friends

After several years of taking care of kids and a husband, and working a full time job, I had decided I needed a friend outside the workplace. I hadn't had one since I was a teenager. So I thought it be great to become friends with one of my children's friend's mom who had a tart sense of humor I enjoyed. Our children were friends, her husband appeared to be rather laid back enough to get along with my husband and we were around the same age and same work ethic, etc., etc., etc.

So one day I was over at her house, sitting on her couch, talking to her and our children, cutting up, having a good time. I'm not sure exactly how it came up, but we started talking about girl friends. She began to tell me she didn't like to be friends with women because all they were after were the husbands. Then she proceeded to tell me her best friend was a man at work.

Hon, I can tell you, I was hurt. First, unless the man was gay, having a male best friend at work or anywhere else is rarely done. No matter what they try to make you believe on television. Men are not normally wired to be just "friends" with women. Women can be that way with men, but men in the end will expect more...such as friends with benefits if you know what I mean. So as you can imagine, I guessed she was having an affair. My teenage daughter had said she wasn't, but it wasn't too long after that the woman left her husband. Though my daughter never did say, I still feel I was right.

Second, her statement about all women were after each other husbands was so laughable, I was speechless. My husband compared to hers was like comparing Brad Pitt to Woody Allen. Mine was Brad. Hmm, maybe she was doing me a favor by not being my friend. Maybe she was eyeing my hubby. Funny, I never thought of that until now. Sure my husband was way better looking than hers, but...nah. The woman was nuts.

Well, you would've thought I would give up on having a friend outside of work. I tried again, but it was disastrous too. In fact, I tried several more times with little luck. I'll save those for another blog. Maybe.

Of course, you probably wonder why I keep saying a friend outside of work. At work it's rather easy to make friends, (hey, you're there more than at home) but I've never had a good track record of keeping the friend and rarely get to socialize with them outside of work. For some reason, I make friends with people without kids or husbands. Don't know why, just one of those things.

Anyway, I'm working on my friendship skills. I've learn a few things through trial and error. Number one is even if you believe you and your friend were actually sisters separated at birth, don't tell her every thought that comes to your head. She will think you're crazy. Number two, don't tell her every secret you've always wanted to tell someone. She may feel compelled to tell someone else, especially if she thinks you're crazy. Or she will bring it up as a reminder of something stupid you did. Third, don't over compliment. She'll begin to believe you're lying. I never understood that but I heard people say "So and so is too sweet or overly nice, She's so fake." Fourth is the total opposite of the one before. Don't be negative about other acquaintances or absent friends or the friend you're talking to will believe you say the same things about her. And fifth and most important, if others criticize your friend, take up for your friend in a gentle, firm way and then keep your mouth shut. Don't tell your friend what was said. It will serve no purpose and she will only think you were gossiping about her in the first place.

I now have friends outside of work. Though I still miss having the type where my husband and I could be friends with another couple. But considering I've had two aunts to have their best friends to cheat with their husbands, maybe that woman from years ago understood this adult friend thing better than me.

So I guess my friends at work and my writer friends will be enough.

Straight Out of a Romance

I'm a big General Hospital fan. As a teenager, I use to make fun of people who watched soap operas. Even as an adult watching Dallas, Dynasty and the Colbys, I said they were dramas, not soap operas.

Then I believe it was 2001, Port Charles decided to bring on a vampire (Michael Eason - yum!) and I was hooked. Though I have a day job, I would record the show and watch it each evening. During that show I would catch short stretches of GH. The gorgeous men (Sonny, Jason, Nicholas) caught my attention and before I knew what I was doing, I was watching TWO soap operas. Well, Port Charles is no more and I didn't care for One Life to Live's writing (Michael is now starring in it). But I continued to watch GH.

I still record GH each day, and instead of watching it each night (cuts into my writing time), I watched them all on Friday night. Between fast forwarding through commercials and the couples I'm not interested in, I can watch five hours of GH in 2 to 2-1/2.

On Tuesday's episode Nicholas was upset and when nurse Nadine tried to console him, he lost his temper and the following scene was one like out of a romance novel. So very sexy in its intensity. Loved it!


See for yourself. The scene is 4 minutes and 12 seconds into the clip.