The Romancechick Speaks

This actually happened several days ago and I intended to blog about it, but with so much else going on in our lives, it’s hard to sit down and tell you about the funny stuff that happens around here.

First, the roaches. No, we don’t live in a garbage dump, but the lovely, genteel South, home of roaches that have no regard for personal space. My personal space! My HOME, for crying out loud!

I love Baton Rouge more than I thought I would when we moved down here almost three years ago. I miss my Delaware County friends, coffeefests and being able to relate to their emails to the group, but I do love it here. I don’t miss snow all that much, except for the picturesque idea of sitting at a winter window with a cup of hot chocolate watching the quiet snow falling outside, cuz, you know, I did that A LOT in PA!

I love my house and I love the friends I’ve met and I go out for coffee with my friends more here than I did in PA.

I HATE ROACHES!

They get into the house and usually die but sometimes we’ll see one alive. The Terminix guy comes every other month and will come if we see them often inside between visits. The Girl has become a bit phobic about them after getting into the shower and seeing one crawling on the shower curtain on the other side. They like water, see? And if we don’t keep the plugs in the drain, they can get in that way.

They also like the cool so when it gets hot out they like to come into the house.

Well, the Boy is phobic, too, about them and will NOT go into the main bathroom without an adult nearby, especially if the “bug spray” is in there. See, Beloved discovered that roaches “hate to be clean” so a mixture of Ivory dish soap and water is a non-toxic way to kill them. It’s gotten so the smell of Ivory is a dead giveaway that a roach was seen in the house.

Now onto the  Robots

The Boy is a BIG fan of Doctor Who. We have 30+ episodes DVR’d and can’t erase any because the Girl wants to have a Doctor Who viewing party with her friends - has since September…but it hasn’t happened yet, but heaven forbid we erase any just in case!!!!

One of the episodes has the fellow pictured above in it. He’s trying to find Madame de Pompadour at age 37. The episode is called “The Girl in the Fireplace,” and it’s not a bad episode. Some logic flaws (me thinking like writer) but entertaining.

It’s the latest episode we’ve taped (not counting of course the new season which starts tonight) and the Boy has watched it OVER AND OVER AND OVER!! You know, no matter how good something it or cute or whatever, after it’s been watched 352, 897 times in one week, it tends to lose a bit of its appeal. Talk to me someday about the nightmare that IS The Polar Express!!!

Oh, did I mention, he found the button on the remote that goes back about 15 seconds? He will rewind the same 15 seconds over and over and over. He does this with live TV, too. He once did it so much with Little Bear that after an hour, the cable box went live, since it can only pause live TV for an hour. The Boy raced to me in the kitchen and told me the TV was broken because it stopped rewinding Little Bear!!

Anyway, a few mornings ago, he was getting ready for school and as always happens, the moment I get his pajamas off, he has to go to the potty. Only, he won’t go into the bathroom because:

“There are Robots in the bathroom.”

I tried to tell him that there are no robots, but he wanted me to promise and I’m trying to teach him not to just use the word promise without knowing what it means (Mommy, I promise I will get a green - and he comes home with a red), so I said I wasn’t going to promise, but I know there are no robots.

He wouldn’t go in. I asked him if he was Madame de Pompadour and if  he isn’t, then why would the robots be there? Beloved laughed at my trying to use insane logic on an insane kid!

When he was convinced there were no robots, he started freaking because there might be roaches. We told him there weren’t any, so he slowly, carefully went into the bathroom, only to come screaming back into his bedroom (across the hall where I was waiting) saying he saw one.

You know the story of “The Boy who Cried Wolf?” The Boy in our house sees roaches and robots and monsters everywhere, so Beloved told him there was no roach.

There was something in the way he was crying, I thought maybe he’d actually seen something.

It’s not out of the question. We’re in the South, after all.

Beloved was a little irritated but he went in and sure enough found a dead roach on the bathroom floor.

Only, it was still moving.

Dancing, the Boy called it. See, he freaks about them but when his dad is handling it (killing it and taking it away so Mommy doesn’t have to even SEE it), he thinks “it’s a cute little roach” and starts talking baby talk to it.

Some days I want to say in bed and let the robots and roaches go on without me!

I have another great book to share with you, Searching for Spice by Megan DiMaria.

From the back cover:

Linda Revere longs to have a sizzling affair . . . with her husband - a practical, no-nonsense community college science teacher. Unfortunately, life isn’t scripted, and nothing goes according to plan. From having a demanding boss and at times a frustrating job to helping her family and friends with their troubles, life seems to be preventing Linda from achieving her goal of an exciting and passionate marriage. Linda hopes God will answer her prayers to jazz up her marriage, but is she ready for what happens next?

This is the debut book for Ms. DiMaria and I think she hit it out of the park!

Linda’s desire, after many years of marriage, a son in college and a daughter in high school, to find the romantic man she married, is one many women can relate to. Linda takes matters into her own hands and starts a well-organized plan to bring the romance and spice back into her marriage.

However, her daughter makes a dumb mistake that threatens to tear the family apart and Linda has reason to fear for her own health and possibly her life. All this puts the romance plan on hold and also makes her question whether there is even a marriage to save.

Ms. DiMaria writes in such an authentically emotional way that I found myself being worried and stressed for no reason and realizing that I was empathizing with Linda so much it affected me even when the book was closed.

I was pleasantly surprised when my fear that the worries would be dealt with in a simple, cliche way were completely unfounded. Her solution to things was creative, surprising and real.

I definitely look forward to reading whatever Ms. DiMaria is working on next!

Okay, maybe not clamor as such, but recently, I’ve begun to wonder if God is trying to tell me something.

I know God is always trying to tell me something! If there is anyone on this earth that needs to be told “something” by our Creator, it’s certainly me! I’m probably the slowest person to learn lessons.

However, today, I’m thinking more about in terms of my writing. In January 2004, my book Fabric of Faith was published by Wings Press. My friends in PA had a booksigning for me and one of them even started reading her Bible again after reading the book, so I’m humbled and pleased by the reception of this book.

To be honest, I don’t believe it’s the best book I could write, but God has used it for His glory and that’s all I need.

However, about a year or so ago, a friend here in Baton Rouge bought a bunch of copies to give out to friends and family for Christmas, even though she hadn’t read it yet. When she did, she asked if I was going to write another book about these characters.

I hadn’t considered doing that. This is a story God gave me and I feel it’s finished.  I’m in the middle of writing the sequel to Attack of the Queen, a book that screamed for a sequel.

Now, a friend of my daughter’s has read Fabric a second time and she’s been sending me messages via my Facebook page asking me to write another book about these characters. AND a woman who bought Fabric at a booksigning sent me a note saying she loved it and is letting all her friends read it and wants to be informed with I publish something else.

Granted, that last one isn’t a “clamor” but I’m wondering if I should think about a sequel. I’m in the middle of this book and have several I need to work on. Do I really want to revisit Mary Grace and Chance?

I don’t know. I prayed about it last night and I can think of some things I do with them, now that I’ve matured in my writing.

I never wanted to disrupt their happy little family before, but now I realize that I might have to make things tough on them to write another story for them.

Do any of you that have read Fabric of Faith (is there anyone out there?) want more about these people? Do you generally want to read more about characters you like?

If you’re a writer, have you ever faced the idea of writing a sequel when you hadn’t planned on it?

I will say this is kinda one of my writing dreams:  to have fans ask more more.

 

I love guinea pigs. We’ve had piggies since the Girl was about five years old. We now have two, a male - Muffin and a female - Pepper. We really need to get him fixed so they can share the same cage again, and no that’s not them in the above picture.

Yesterday I was feeling kinda down. It has a lot to do with getting older and trying to lose weight (see - Lowering the Feed Limit). I interviewed with Weight Watchers on Saturday and they offered me a receptionist position and I’m looking forward to the training and actually working meetings.

However, deep down, I want to be a leader and I need to get down to my goal weight- or within 10 pounds of it - before I can do that. Last week I worked very hard and still gained 2.2 pounds. I’m sure it was a fluke but I was still kinda depressed about it yesterday.

Our piggies needed new food so I was happy that the PetSmart near us finally opened so I don’t have to drive so far to get them food. Target used to have guinea pig food but I can’t rely on the, and their associate who tried to help me just kept saying “Well, we have Gerbil food.” With a hard G like in Goal! Sorry, buddy, Gerbils aren’t the same as Guinea pigs!

Anyway, I went in to the PetSmart and right near the small animal aisle, they had two big glass boxes with out 6-7 baby male piggies. Oh, they were so cute and I wanted to buy another one. It did help my mood a bit.

Well, I noticed that these piggies had been eating oranges because there were peels all over the cage. This morning as I made my smoothie for breakfast, I saw we had some oranges so I thought I’d give my babies a treat.

I cut the small orange up into six pieces and gave them each three.

They both moved to the opposite side of their cage and acted like I’d put something scary there. When I made my salad for lunch, they happily ate cucumber peels and lettuce, but man, we won’t touch those oranges!

I could see if one didn’t like oranges or something, but both?

I must have the pickiest piggies ever. Or maybe, as I’ve always suspected, they just aren’t too bright!

Courting Emma is the third book in Ms. MacLaren’s Little Hickman Creek Series. I didn’t read the other two, but if they are anything like this one, I certainly want to.

The back cover blurb says:

Twenty-eight-year-old Emma Browning has experienced a good deal of life at her young age. Proprietor of Emma’s Boardinghouse, she is “mother” to an array of beefy, unkempt, often rowdy characters. Though many men would like to get to know the steely, hard-edged, yet surprisingly lovely proprietor, none has truly succeeded. That is, not until the town’s new pastor, Jonathan Atkins, takes up residence in the boardinghouse, affecting not only her with his devout faith and strong convictions, but her clientèle as well. Emma clings desperately to her stubborn ways, refusing to acknowledge God’s love until all of Little Hickman witnesses a miracle — the conversion of her abusive and alcoholic father, Ezra! Only then will Emma begin to experience God’s transforming power at work.

This blurb doesn’t do justice to the depth of emotion in this book. I don’t normally cry while reading a novel. Movies, yeah, but it takes a lot in a book to make me cry.

Well, I did toward the end of this one!

Also, this blurb doesn’t tell you about the romance in the book and how wonderful the characters are portrayed. Emma and Jon are real people with real problems and pasts that are not so clean and shiny. They share a common, abusive past, but where Jon let God open his heart and learned how to forgive even if it was after his father’s death, Emma stayed bitter and angry at her father, who, in her mind (and the mind of some townspeople) is unworthy of any kind of gentle feeling or compassion. She only deals with him when she has to and refuses to let anyone help her, believing that her father is her problem.

Jonathan, who she knew as a child, took a different path and ends up helping Emma with her father, regardless of her bitterness and out right anger at the idea of a loving God. Jon’s example and refusal to back off from his beliefs eventually soften her heart and allows her to see God’s love and her own worthiness.

An excellent book and one I would recommend to anyone interested in reading a wholesome inspirational that doesn’t paint life as always rosy and sweet. Real people dealing with real problems and finding God through it all. Wonderful!

Now I’m a huge LOST fan, as is the whole family.

I’m also a writer and in November 2005 and 2006 I did National Novel Writing Month. The goal of this insane exercise is to write 50,000 words in a month. The first year I did this, I discovered that in the process of trying to get my word count in, I often resorted to just writing whatever, without worrying about the consequences to the story. (Can you see where I’m going with this?)

Every week stuff happens on LOST that doesn’t seem to fit what has gone before.

This week it was Danielle and Kurt getting hit and killed (?) by…something. And then the ending - LOST across the screen. What is going on?

It’s getting to be kind of a joke at our house. We laugh every time some new plot element shows up - Michael on the boat, Aaron gets off the island but Claire doesn’t, Hurley saw Jacob’s cabin, practically everything that happens on this crazy show!

The Girl even says, every week, “What smoke monster? What are you talking about?” We’re kinda sure that everyone has forgotten the smoke monster, and this is exactly the kind of thing that happens during NaNoWriMo.

You’re busy writing away, trying to get your 2,000 words in for the day, and you throw in a smoke monster to terrorize your plane crash survivors. You don’t necessarily know why it’s there or what it really is, but hey, it’s good for several thousand words and you can figure it out later.

Then you add more characters - the Others, the Tailies, these guys from “Not Penny’s Boat” - and you’ve forgotten the smoke monster because it never shows up again and you’ve never explained it, but sure shootin’ the story’s exciting because every week someone either dies, sees some odd thing (polar bear anyone), has a very interesting flashback (Hurley is in a mental institution, Claire was “sent” to the island), has a very interesting flash-forward (Kate’s raising Aaron, Jack wants to kill himself, Sayid’s working for Ben as a hired gun) or reveals some secret about him/herself (Michael’s on the boat to die??).

Now maybe J.J. Abrams and his crew will tie all these loose ends up (SMOKE MONSTER!!!) or maybe Sidney Bristow will find out her fiance’s name isn’t Michael Vaughn after all!!!

Last Easter, I couldn’t get to all the services for the Triduum because the Boy had his tonsils out on Maundy Thursday, so I missed that service. The Girl says Beloved stayed home that night, too, but I don’t remember that. She and I went to Good Friday and then she and Beloved went to the Vigil and I went to Easter morning service alone.

This year, we all went to everything. The choir Beloved and the Girl are in sang for Maundy Thursday, so the Boy and I sat alone in our regular pew (right up front, as close to the choir as we can get without actually being IN the choir). Well, I guess not alone as an older lady sat with us due to the number of attendees. Just so you know, this is a very small pew. It can comfortably hold four people, but I don’t know that you could squeeze in five, so the Boy and I aren’t taking up six or seven places all by ourselves!

When they took the Eucharist out of the church, I cried a little and tried to explain to the Boy what was happening. I told him Jesus was going to die and wouldn’t be with us until Easter Sunday. As the priests carried the consecrated hosts all around the church and then over to where they would rest for adoration until late that night, I saw a few tears running down the Boy’s cheeks as well. This may be my child who wrestles with God, but at that moment, he got the emotions of the moment, anyway.

There was a gumbo supper after that service, and even though our line was directed through past the desserts first, I didn’t have any. The gumbo was delicious and not too spicy.

We sat with a couple we’d never met before and through the conversation I mentioned I’m a writer and gave them my website address and the names of my books. I really need to print up new business cards!

On Good Friday, we all went - again sitting in the same pew (they should put our names on it like they used to do in those old churches). Someone on the decor committee had hung a red banner over the crucifix and the altar was cleared except for three chairs and the lectern. It was kind of emotional to see that, which is good for Good Friday. We should feel the emotion!

After that service, the decor committee, which I’m on, decorated for Easter. Beloved, the Girl AND the Boy helped. The Girl tried to figure out how to get disadvantaged service hours out of it, but decided to be honest and not count this work.

Anyway, we worked from about 4:30 or a little later until about 7:30 or so when one of the men brought in catfish and hush puppies. Well, I don’t eat fish or any seafood (a bit of a handicap living in Louisiana) so I’d made a kind of lasagna thing, without meat, of course, as it was Good Friday - which is a day of fast and abstinence. I had some of my lasagna, some yummy salad, some bread and one cookie. Then, I left the room where the food was because those cookies were calling to me and having any more food would violate, in my opinion, the whole spirit of the fast and abstinence rule. In reality, I probably shouldn’t have had that cookie, but whatever.We left right after we ate because it was after the Boy’s bedtime and most of the work was finished anyway.

I had a HeartLA meeting on Saturday morning and the Girl volunteered at a nursing home for some disadvantaged service hours.

Our RWA chapter had some surprising news on Thursday; our president resigned, citing family reasons. I don’t know what those are and won’t speculate here, but our vice-president said she didn’t feel ready to step in as president, yet.Our chapter has this kind of “succession” system. It’s kind of understood that if you agree to run for and are elected vice-president, you will be president the next year. We’re such a small chapter we don’t have a lot of people running for offices, so basically, if you agree to run, you will hold the office.

As I was president last year, I told our VP that if she needed my help on Saturday, I’d be there. I missed the last two months due to pneumonia (Jan) and the Boy’s Pinewood Derby (Feb - he won first place in car design!). She said she thought she could run the meeting but was glad I’d be there to help if she needed it.

Then, Elaine Grant, who was president two years ago, contacted me and asked if I would be willing to be co-president with her this year to help our VP get through her year of learning the ropes. I agreed. I’ll be running meetings and Elaine will work on the luncheon.

We didn’t go to the vigil on Saturday night. While I love that service and it really feels like Easter when I go, the Boy wouldn’t have been able to handle a 2+ hour service, no matter how beautiful.

Sunday morning, we went to church and then spent a lovely, NO TV, day. Beloved had brined the turkey (yes we had turkey for Easter - we’d gotten two for the winter holidays and had one still in the freezer), and roasted it upside down and it was the most delicious turkey I think I’ve ever had.

It was lovely, relaxing day.

The kids have this week off from school, and the Girl has a ton of stuff to do so it may end up being me and the Boy around here. I hope to get a lot done on Sword & Illusion. I can always get the Boy interested in coloring or building with his blocks and he can be good for an hour or so!

How was your holiday? Blessed, I hope!

I was a little stressed this morning. The Girl will be starting college next year and LSU has a thing called the Spring Invitational that outstanding high school seniors are invited to. She got the postcard inviting her a few weeks ago but said she wasn’t sure she wanted to go. However, the teachers started asking who was going and she realized it was something she really wanted to go to. It is essentially orientation and advance placement testing, so yes, she wants to go. So, last night I looked up the information but couldn’t find how to register. I called the orientation office but had to leave a message.

This morning I tried again and saw how to do it, but they also wanted to know if any of her parents would be going to the Family Orientation (three FULL days of workshops, etc. WEEKDAYS). With the Boy it just isn’t practical for me to try to go to it, so after some IMing back and forth to Beloved (most forth as he wasn’t answering), I decided not to go and got her registered. Of course, it cost over $100 which made my stomach roll, but Beloved said (see? He can answer when he wants to) go ahead and pay it.

The card we used for stuff like this is either hard to read or maybe I’m old and senile but it never goes through the first time, so after I got her all registered and made my breakfast, I found an email saying the card had been refused. I had to run through all the registering stuff again and retyped the number, and this time it went through.

After all that, I needed to get out of the house. The Boy needs 12 plastic Easter Eggs with something inside for an egg hunt - no chocolate, and Beloved wanted gold stars for an incentive thing for the Boy, so I decided to head out to Hobby Lobby - my mothership and, while I hate their checkout lines, a place I can go and browse and no one else in the family wants to go with me!

On the way, I had to pass Target. I had about half my Target gift card left and desperately needed bras. I went in and found two bras and some cool crew socks for me. Cool = white. I like fancy cool socks for exercising, but I just need regular socks and it was cheaper to buy six plane white pairs than four colorful pairs, so I decided to be frugal and get the white ones.

On my way out, I went to the purses to look around.

Some gals are show people. I’m a bag person. BIG TIME.

Have you seen this? A place you can rent those big time designer purses mentioned in Kristin Billerbeck’s books or seen on Lipstick Jungle. Yes, I’m a chick lit junkie, but again money keeps me from buying all the books I want. I’m also too poor to even rent a bag from that site. At least one big enough to carry what I want to carry. Maybe when the Girl gets married I’ll splurge and rent something like this. 

But that’s a tangent (my superpower). I looked at the bags and found this, a Merona Work Tote. 

I WANT it. It’s big enough to carry my AlphaSmart and has little compartments inside for wallet stuff and a place for my keys. It’s also $30 and I just couldn’t afford it.

Any family members listening reading? Our anniversary is next month and Mother’s Day is coming up, too. I love this bag!

From author Linda Windsor. My heartfelt APOLOGIES regarding Wedding Bell Blues. I had two regrettable errors in this  publication that, when called to my attention, I didn’t at first believe it.

    I didn’t remember my hero having a Rhett Butler moment when he said “D_mn, I still love you, Alex.”

    And while I’d written unsaved character Sue Ann exclaiming, “Oh my g_wd!” with the intent of convicting Sue Ann of its blasphemy in her own book #4, I changed her mind after discussing it with my editor and deleted those occurences rather than offend anyone. Well, I missed one. The GOOD NEWS is that these have been removed from future printings and book club issues.

    To anyone who read Wedding Bell Blues and was offended, my humble apologies. I’d written this book after my husband died and during those months of brain fog, I almost stopped writing because it was so hard to put coherent thought together. Then I turned it in months late, which put my publisher in a bind as far as getting the usual multiple editings. This was the result. Granted, I must have written these blunders or they would not have been there. For that, I can only ask for your forgiveness and understanding.

I’m getting back on track with Sword & Illusion. I REALLY want this book to go out this summer. I’m ready to work on Stretched to the Limit and am even thinking about the third in the Known Worlds Saga (as I’m calling the fantasy novels. Beloved gave me a great idea last night, so I need to incorporate that into S&I.