Cherry Forums Book Club

Please join us in the Book Club December 1 (Tomorrow! Can you believe it?) through December 10th for Laura Fitzgerald's Veil of Roses discussion. It's a great book!

Check out her website!

Her Publisher, Bantam Dell

Buy it on Amazon - A great holiday gift!

or on Barnes and Noble

Ace Pics

I don't know whose cuter, Abner or Ace!


Twenty-six pounds of fun!


Lulu and Ace play all night long!


Lulu is very happy with her new playmate.

He's Staying

He's here! He's ours! He's fantastic!

Lulu is having the time of her life playing with him.

Pics soon!

Eeeeee! 2

She just called. In traffic she's probably an hour and a half away. I can calm down now. Poor thing must be tired. She was at a sick friend's house, helping her clean out her kennels. Her friend must run a rescue too. The sad thing is she lives an hour and a half (without traffic) from me. But this lady lives a good 45 minutes (without traffic) PAST me! A long day for her.

I have a nice loaf of cranberry-orange bread to offer her, but she'll probably be hungrier than that. I like her so much from her e-mails, I want to order her a pizza. Weird, I know, but the way I was raised, I like to feed people I care about and I don't have the ingredients to cook anything right now. She cares about animals. She deserves to be cared for too. Hopefully her friend fed her.

Update tonight. Please cross your fingers that Lulu and Ace like each other.

Eeeeee!

It's 5:28. She said she'd be here at 5! Nervous! Eeee!

Anticipation

Doggie Update:
The owner of the rescue is coming to our house Thursday night for the house check. If she likes our house, yard, and us, and if Lulu and Ace get along, he's ours! All ours. And, unlike all the other rescues we've been dealing with over the last year and three months, we don't have to drive to hell and back to get him. She's bringing him on Thursday! Cross your fingers that everything works out the way it's supposed to. We would love for Lulu to have a cute little friend and, after years of having two huge dogs, a medium dog and a little dog sounds just perfect to us.

Doggie Update

I bet you were all missing my doggie updates, weren't ya? :) We found this little guy at a rescue this weekend. The rescue owner liked our application, so she is going to send someone to check our house next. We've passed house checks before, so I doubt we'll fail this one. After that, we'll have to see if Lulu and Ace (that's his name. Cute huh?) get along. If they do, hopefully they'll choose us. They have many interested families since it is rare to see a Frenchie at a rescue. He's only a year old and he's at the rescue because his owner passed away, not from abuse or anything like that this time.

Wish us luck!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends. I just finished my baking--I was in charge of dessert--and we'll be off to my sister-in-law's in about an hour. (Pictured: Pumpkin Gingerbread Trifle, Cheesecake with cherry topping (Low fat!) and pumpkin pie, natch.)

I am thankful for my family, both my little family at home (Abner & Lulu), my Mom, and all my aunts, cousins and in-laws. Also to my Dad and all his relatives on the east coast, who I have just started to get to know in the last couple of years. I'm also grateful for my friends, both local and Internet friends. Some of my writing friends I have met on the net, I have been lucky enough to hug in person once or twice (or more!) and I can say, without a doubt, that the best thing to ever come out of the invention of the Internet, was friendships that never would have been formed any other way.

Blessings to all my friends on this holiday.

Success

I've been working on the first scene of my new manuscript for a couple of weeks. For me, the first scene is crucial for wrapping my head around where the first draft is going. I'm sure it will totally change when I rewrite, but, for now, it needs to be what it needs to be. I'm not always certain what it actually needs to be at first, but once it feels right, I can go on and write first draft garbage to my heart's content.

Anyway, I had been working on two different (yet similar) versions of it--one at work on my lunch break and one at home, at night, before bed. It's interesting to compare the two versions, written in different environments and at different times of day.

A couple of nights ago, I printed both of them out and made corrections. Then, I sat down and weaved the two of them together. I went back and forth, hilighting and numbering each scene chunk and I think it all flows together nicely. This weekend, my job will be to type the whole thing up and finish the scene. It might need a paragraph or two--or even a page or two--but I won't know until I have it in front of me.

So far, I think it's 7 pages. Won't know til it's all smooshed together. I have to post it for my critique group on Nov 30th, so I am trying to really get this thing right. I don't want to waste people's time by posting something that isn't as polished as I can get it. Normally, I wouldn't bother to polish it after this, I'd just go on and write the next scene--which I'll still do once this is ready for the crit group. Promise!

Diet Update

I am still living my new Healthy Lifestyle! Look how happy that sounded with the exclamation point. :) Seriously, it's not so bad. I'm not starving and it's not killing me and I'm still losing weight. So, go me! Here's my weekly totals:

Week 1- Calories-1,260, Fat grams-25.6, Pounds lost- 5
Week 2- Calories-1,120, Fat grams-20.6, Pounds lost- 3
Week 3- Calories-1,130, Fat grams-22.5, Pounds lost- 2
Week 4- Calories-1,139, Fat grams-26.8, Pounds lost- 1
Week 5- Calories-1,147, Fat grams-21.6, Pounds lost- 1/2
Week 6- Calories-1,181, Fat grams-24, Pounds lost- 1/2
Week 7- Calories-1,146, Fat grams-29.9, Pounds lost- 0
Week 8- Calories- 1,182, Fat grams-24.9, Pounds lost- 1
Week 9- Calories- 996, Fat grams-17.1, Pounds lost- 2
Week 10- Calories- 1,056, Fat grams-23.1, Pounds lost- 1
Week 11- Calories- 1,390, Fat grams-31, Pounds lost- 2
Week 12- Calories- 1,007, Fat grams-20.2, Pounds lost- 0
Week 13- Calories- **CRUSIE CON- Diet/weigh-in Vacation**
Week 14- Calories- 1,091, Fat grams-29.7, Pounds lost- 2
Week 15- Calories- 1,339, Fat grams-32.9, Pounds lost- 0
Week 16- Calories- 1,120, Fat grams-22.5, Pounds lost- 1
Week 17- Calories- 1,049, Fat grams-24, Pounds lost- 1
Week 17- Calories- 1,199, Fat grams-24.5, Pounds lost- 1
--------------------------------------------------------
Total Pounds Lost: 23

One thing I noticed about week 16, which wasn't all bad--I just didn't bother to calculate my calories at the 4 day conference, and didn't want to average the 3 days I did calculate as a "weekly average"--was that it's very hard to get back into eating smaller portions and lower fat once you've spent 4 days eating whatever you want. Lemme tell you, I enjoyed those 4 days to the fullest. Two days I had regular ice cream--as opposed to NF/Lf/light, frozen yogurt & sherbet. All four days there was chocolate, cookies, cake! And did I mention the alcohol? That's something I never, ever indulge in. My meals were still quite healthy (chicken breast, salads, veggies) because I actually like that kind of stuff, but dessert is my downfall and, by God I indulged in sweets of all kinds.

But I also noticed that you can only eat like that for so many days. My body and mind are actually much happier when I'm eating right. It's not like I don't know this, but it's easy to forget when you are a foodie and you are not in the mood to watch your calories. Lately, people are telling me how nice my skin is, which is great, especially since I'm trying to get in shape for my big 4-0. I have about nine months to go. If nine months is enough time to create a new little person, I don't see why it isn't enough time to create a new big (yet smaller) person. :)

That's me at the Crusie Con (with most of the usual suspects) front row, all the way to the right.

ETA: Week 17 averages and a new total. Weigh day is Sunday, the last day of my dieting week.

ETA #2: Week 18- lost one more pound. New total 23. Not too bad for Thanksgiving week, huh? Will have weekly averages tomorrow.

Silliness

Look like the innocent flower, but be the witchcraft under't.

Which work of Shakespeare was the original quote from?

Get your own quotes:

This just in

Writing is hard.

That's all.

A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people. ~ Thomas Mann

(I stole this quote from Charity's new Blog. Check it out.)

Rough Draft Exercise

Rough Drafts are basically garbage. Stuff you have to get out so you can write something good later. Here is an example. It's actually an exercize I was working on to get into Acacia's (my protagonist's) head. It's often helpful to write journal entires from various characters' POVs (points of view). This is hers at a very low point in her life, just after the first turning point. In a nutshell, her family has been murdered.

----------------------

Numb.

I can’t describe the way I feel any better than that. I’ve lost nearly everything and everyone I hold dear. Can someone please tell me how I can ever recover from this?

I’m not sure if I want to recover anyway. What will it mean if I do? I’ve lost my mother, the only parent I’ve ever known. I’ve lost my Coven Sisters, the only family I’ve ever had. I have no Coven, no family, no purpose in life. There’s nothing left for me now.


Wait a minute--I take it all back--I’m not numb. I’m angry! Why my mother? Why my Coven Sisters? Why are four good and decent women dead? What could any of them have ever done to deserve such a grizzly death? And why didn’t I meet the same fate?


I just don’t know what to think. Perhaps I’m here because I have a purpose? And what would that purpose be? I was a member of a Coven--a family--and now it’s gone.


So here I sit on the morning of the Summer Solstice wondering why I’m supposed to give a damn. Why should I prepare my alter and tools for tonight? Why should I thank the Lord and Lady for my many “blessings”? Why should I anoint my body with oils, put on my robe and climb the hill to the clearing where we cast our sacred circle?


Earth is my element and I like it that way. I never asked to be a solitary witch, damn it, never wanted to work alone. And why should I have to? Says who? The bastards who killed my family had no right to take my magic from me. From us. How dare they?


Damn it. Damn them. I can’t let them take it. I do have control over this.

Tonight, for better or for worse, everything changes. I’ll be north, south, east, and west. I’ll be winter, summer, spring, and autumn. I’ll be Earth, Fire, Air, and Water...and I’ll be Spirit too.

I’ll do it for my Coven Sisters and I’ll do them proud.
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There you have it. Not fabulous reading, but not meant to be. It's a tool that works pretty well. Try it if you need to get deeper into a character's POV and see if it helps you too. It just might. :)