Holiday Appetizer

Looking for a great story to read over the holidays? Here's a little taste of one I found to be particularly delightful.



Enjoy!

Tomorrow, the review.

Back In Action

Hey everyone. Here I am, and not completely dead. Only mostly dead tired. This is my busy (okay, busier than usual) season. Since the last blog post here, I’ve spent four days in Florida, four days in Chicago, four days in west Texas, and three days in Indianapolis. And then another week in Florida. The sucky part is none of it is vacation. The great part is that I’m working. But no less exhausted, and grouchy, so you probably don’t want to talk to me anyway.

Thanks for hanging in there with me. One of my major gripes in following a blog is when you check it, and the person has totally stopped posting. Grrr. You have my humble apology for becoming one of the very things that’s on my crappy list. I will do better.

I really want to ramp up this blog, so there are some great things planned for the new year. Author interviews, reviews, give aways and more! More what? Well, you just have to check back in and see.

Here’s wishing you great last minute shopping, with shorter lines, and a clear path to exactly the right gift.

Party With Lyrical Authors!

Renegade Renovation #7 – Framed!

I’ve got walls! Well, er, sort of. The framing is finished, bringing the floor plan to life. Now I can really see where the rooms will be, how they feel, and look. And I’m still living, the framers didn’t do away with me.

The reason being, they were supposed to arrive about three weeks ago or so. And then they called and said they were running a week behind. Well. That’s not uncommon in construction, with all the job shuffling they have to do. But what it did for me, was bring my attention back to the floor plan.

Now mind you, this plan was drawn and set in stone months and months ago. I was happy with it. Until I looked at it again. Now it looked like a bunch of square blocks on a page. So I got my chalk line out, and laid it out on the floor. And it still looked like a bunch of square blocks. Eww. No character at all. Um, okay maybe it represented my personality, but I swear that’s not who I am on the inside.

I grabbed a black marker and drew angles on the floor. Cutting off sharp corners and replacing them with angles. Setting perfectly straight walls at a slant. And guess what? I loved it. The person who’s job it was to transfer the angles to a drawing didn’t love it. But bless him, he did it anyway.

And when the framers came in, they didn’t bat an eye. I did catch a brief eye roll, and pretended not to notice. Professionals to the end, they built it just like it was drawn. Now, it’s got character.

NaNoWriMo

November is National Novel Writing Month, or time for NaNo as most writers call it. It's the time of year when writers from all over the world get together and write. I mean, just write. No editing, no critiquing, or rewriting. Here's the link if you'd like more information. NaNoWriMo.

The goal is to write a 50k word story in a month. It's supposed to be a great exercise in simply getting the words of your story on paper. As someone who struggles with each word, because it has to be exactly the right one before it hits the page, I'm not sure how well this will work for me. But I'll keep you updated.

This is my first time to take part in NaNo. I really wanted to do it, to challenge myself to just write. Without worrying about what comes out. And of course, I'm traveling. Hey, I'm up for it. Wish me luck!

Blog on the Road

Can you believe it's November? I can't. It seems October just flew by without notice. And I didn't blog much. *hangs head in shame* Of course it could be because I'm up to my ass in alligators here in Atlanta. Yep, you read that right. Atlanta.

Coming to you live, well okay, not live, remotely then. The truth is, I have a face for radio, not streaming video but I digress. Here I am at CNN Center in downtown Atlanta. Smiling like an idiot. Why? Just appreciating the irony.

In case you don't remember, I've moved away from the big ATL. And here I am hard at work, only a couple hundred miles from home. But work is work these days, and I'm thankful.

Hope you're having as much fun as I am!

Blog Hopping

Today, I'm the guest blogger at You Gotta Read.

Come on by and tell us, do you prefer a complex plot, or not?