Thirteen Things I wonder About

(Sometimes to the point of not sleeping!)

1. Why did the salesperson at Target the other day say the word “gerbil” with a hard G (like in goat) when he was explaining to me that they didn’t have guinea pig food only hamster and gerbil food?
2. Why did that story make my husband and daughter laugh all evening like it was the funniest thing they’d heard in days?
3. Why are people so quick to say something mean in an email and then follow it up with, “I don’t mean to hurt anyone’s feelings, but…” and proceed to repeat it making sure they “subtly” let you know who they’re talking about?
4. Why do people who are anti-something join pro-something groups just to be able to say nasty things to the members of the group?
5. Why can’t our mail come at the same time every day?
6. Why do I always misplace the book I’m in the middle of reading?
7. Why do people in the South keep the air conditioning set at around 60 degrees so I have to wear a hoodie to visit the dentist???
8. Why is it necessary for my kids to scream across the house rather than come and find me?
9. Why does everything always take longer than you think it will?
10. Why don’t people use turn signals?
11. Does spam really work?
12. Why do I get spams for male enhancement and breast enlargement on the same day?
13. Why would Noah take cockroaches on the Ark?

Sorry I’ve been so neglectful of this blog. Life just seems to get in the way of doing the things I want to do.

Some quick updates:

Writing update:

I’ve kind of put off writing because of some other things going on. I finished judging the entries I got from the Get Your Stiletto in the Door contest. I wanted to get them all done before the cruise so it wasn’t hanging over my head.

I’ve dug out an old story about a woman with three children whose husband was a hostage in the Middle East for three years and was just released to come home to a life that is very different from the one he left. The version I have now is very Catholic and while I’ve been hoping to get something ready to send to one of the conventional publishers, I think I want to finish this one the way it is and send it to Wings. Until someone is willing to publish Catholic romances, I guess I’ll have to keep writing those for small presses.

Today, between doctor appointments, I’m going to work on the workshops for the cruise.

Weight loss update:

Or should I say weight gain update. Yes, I was up 1.6 this week at my weigh-in. I had a long cry about it when I got home, and yes, I yelled at God about it. I know what I need to do, but I get discouraged at the idea that I’ll have to spend the rest of my life eating only fruits and vegetables, without treats. AND with the cruise next week, I don’t foresee my next weigh in being any better. Next week the topic is how we’re not our weight and I’ll miss it. That’s the one I need1

Sewing/craft update:

I finished a skirt and a pair of pants for the cruise. The pants are a little loose, but the elastic is sewn in so I can’t really fix them. The good part is I have another pair cut from that same pattern and now I know to cut the elastic a little smaller. I have another skirt done,but it needs to be hemmed. I will try to do that today.

I have been cleaning up the rec room/craft area because a friend from church who is a rubber stamper, too, is coming over to hang out for a while tomorrow.

General life update:

The Boy is going through a very rebellious, contentious stage. He throws a temper tantrum, complete with screaming and crying if he doesn’t get his own way. I’m trying to stay calm when these things happen. Yesterday I did pretty well. I firmly told him to go to the bedroom if he wasn’t going to stop fussing and crying. Of course he said no and we had a little bit of a chase around the living room, but eventually I got him “herded” (walking with me close behind him) to the bedroom. I got him on his bed and told him to stay there. He fought a little and I took two of his stuffed animals away. They were actually The Girl’s, but he and I’d collected all the animals in the house in our room for a party over the weekend. I left the room when he was “settled” on the bed, and set the timer for five minutes. He began to scream at me, and I went back in for a little talk. Came out again, and reset the timer. After about three minutes, I heard something hit the adjoining wall between the bedroom and the rec room. I went in to see what he’d thrown – a printer cartridge for a printer that doesn’t work anymore. I took his favorite stuffed animal and put it on a high shelf in the closet, told him he was to stay on that bed until I got back and if he threw anything again he’d lose more toys.

He made it through the next five minutes, but he acted up again after Daddy got home and got a time out again.

I just PRAY that this phase ends soon.

Thirteen Favorite Fictional Heroines:

1. Scarlett O’Hara – The Queen. She had it all: style, attitude and ambition. Yes, she loses points for holding on to her infatuation with Ashley Wilkes too long and losing Rhett, her real love. Gone With the Wind
2. Ashley Wilkes Stockingdale -The heroine of Kristen Billerbeck’s wonderful Christian chick lit novels. She is hip and loves Jesus. What more could you want in a heroine? What a Girl Wants: A Novel
3. Princess Daisy – I don’t know if all girls dreamed of being a princess when they were young, but I know I did and I love this book about an American woman who really is a princess and her struggles. I’ve read it over and over again.
4. Mia Thermopolis – Going along with the theme of the above entry, Mia finds out she’s a princess when she’s a teenager. I love this series of books, which are different from the movies (especially the second one) and I love Meg Cabot as a writer. The Princess Diaries
5. Heather Wells – another heroine created by Meg Cabot. She is an ex-pop star who leaves music when she isn’t allowed to record what she wants and after discovering her pop star boyfriend in a compromising position with another female teen sensation. She ends up working in a college dormitory (something I did for two years) and defending herself against charges that she’s “gotten fat.” Size 12 Is Not Fat: A Heather Wells Mystery
6. Kate Connor – heroine of Julie Kenner’s Demon Hunting Soccer Mom series. I mean, for a die-hard Buffy/Joss Whedon fan, how could you not love her just from reading the name of the series. Kate is dealing with a teenager, a preschooler, a husband who doesn’t know about her past and demons flying through her front window the day of a dinner party. Between helping her husband’s political career, dealing with her son’s spoiled playmates, and driving her daughter to the mall, how does she find time to thwart a demon plot to end the world? Carpe Demon: Adventures of a Demon-Hunting Soccer Mom
7. Wlhelmina Hunnewell Winthrop Ikehorn Orsini (Billy) – heroine of Scruples, another book I’ve read more than once. Yes, it’s not great literature, but it’s a fun book to read if you like stories about the rich, Hollywood, and how women triumph over adversity.
8. Sabrina Longworth – heroine of Deceptions, the story of adult identical twins who live very different lives. One is wealthy and owns an antique shop in London. The other is a suburban wife of a college professor who may or may not be sleeping with a student. On an annual trip together, they decide to switch places. Things, of course, get out of hand and it becomes interesting. I read this book back in college. I was home on a weekend or for a holiday, and while the rest of the family watched, probably, a football game on TV, I couldn’t put this book down. I remember my father talking to me and marveling how it must be a good book if I hadn’t stopped reading it all day. I’ve read it once since and actually read it out loud to my husband when we were first married.
9. Marge Simpson – yes, her husband is a buffoon and her kids are either headed for prison or the white house, but her house is immaculate and her husband loves her so deeply that even when women throw themselves at him (for whatever reason), he thinks about their first kiss and goes back to her. And she loves him unconditionally. Despite all the criticism of this show, I love it because in the end, the family loves each other and sticks together. The Simpsons: A Complete Guide to Our Favorite Family
10. River Tam – She lives in her own world and appears crazy, but she is really, underneath, very perceptive and frankly, dangerous. What’s not to like? Serenity (Widescreen Edition)
11. Dexter’s Mom – She’s another one with an immaculate home, a loving, if weird, family and deep down, she has super powers. Dexter’s Laboratory – Greatest Adventures
12. Peggy Hill – Come on. She speaks “fluent” Spanish, in fact she is a substitute Spanish teacher (three time winner of the substitute teacher of the year award, thank you!) and worries about the Y2K bug bothering her Kaypro computer. She gets taken in by scams and thinks pretending to be a nun so she can get a teaching job is a great idea! Through this all, she believes she is a highly intelligent woman. My kind of gal! King of the Hill – The Complete First Season
13. Jennifer Marlow – WKRP’s receptionist and most highly paid employee. She wears fabulous clothes and dates rich men. There was time in my life when I wanted to be this woman. WKRP in Cincinnati – The Complete First Season

After my post of yesterday about the science fiction and fantasy books to read after Harry Potter is finished, I went with my family to the mall and picked up one of the books. While the Girl and I were at the bookstore, we ran into another book lover browsing the science fiction and fantasy section. Her husband was standing in front of the rack I was looking at. He asked if he was in my way and I said, “No because if I pick up any of these I’ll want them, so you’re fine.”

This led to a conversation with his wife and eventually she asked if we know who writes the The Dresden Files books.Well, it turns out this is the series the Girl is in the midst of and loving them, so we were able to help

When we met Hubby and the Boy for lunch we told them about this and we talked about the pile of books I have at home waiting to be read. I finally decided that I better read all the oldest books before I buy any more.

So this list is thirteen of the oldest books I haven’t read yet. I am not including the Wizard of Oz books I’ve collected or the Anne of Green Gables my mother gave my daughter that we haven’t gotten through yet.

1. Moonlight and Memories (Onyx) by Patricia Rice. This one is autographed and dated 1994. I was living in Illinois then, a member of Prairie Hearts, the Champaign-Urbana chapter of RWA and the Girl was five. I’m actually reading this now.

2. The Last Viking by Sandra Hill.

3. Passion by Bobbi Smith

4. The Fire in Autumn by Delia Parr

5. That Camden Summer by LaVyrle Spencer
6. November of the Heart by LaVyrle Spencer

7. Flame (Lovegram Historical Romance) by Evelyn Rogers

8. Coast Road: A Novel by Barbara Delinsky

9. Heaven by Bobbi Smith

10. Deeper Than the Night (Paranormal Romance) by Amanda Ashley

11. Portrait of Dreams by Victoria Malvey

12. Once A Rogue (Zebra Books) by Megan Gray

13. Prince Of Magic by Anne Stuart.

I don’t guarantee that these are the oldest books in my collection. These are just the first 13 I pulled off the shelf that have a copyright year of 1999 or earlier. I’ll let you know as I finish them and what I think of them.

I know this family is.

In 1996, when it was just Hubby, the Girl and me, we moved to Germany. Due to distance and other factors, including our inability to speak German, we found ourselves, every Sunday, riding an hour and a half by bus and train to get to the English-speaking Catholic Church in Berlin.

After awhile we needed something to help us pass the time, and I started reading books out loud. I read a lot of the Goosebumps Books, something the Girl was into for awhile. Then, after a trip to the States, we got several books by John Bellairs, a favorite author of my husband when he was a kid.

When we got back to the States, Harry Potter was just released but we didn’t really know anything about him until about 2001when the Girl’s fifth grade teacher read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Book 1) to her class. We’d heard some of the hype by then because several of the books were out. The Girl had read the first one, but I wanted to read it and Hubby suggested that I read it to the family.

For the first book I did voices and we were all kind of in shock when the movie came out because I did Hagrid pretty close to Robbie Coltrane’s take on him. After the first book or two, which we read pretty much right together, I stopped doing voices. It was hard to remember how I’d done each character, and the family forgave me. I still try to do Snape’s voice because he’s just great. (I love Alan Rickman!)

Now that our family includes the Boy, reading the books takes a lot longer. Everyone on the planet knew about the end of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Book 6) before we’d gotten halfway through it. I suggested that we all just read it to ourselves. I was dying to keep reading and I had a lot more time to read than anyone else, but that idea was vehemently vetoed!

Now, I know that when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7) comes out, it’ll take months for us to get through it, but when that’s finished, then what??????

Well, as it turns out, SF Signal asked that very question and came up with a great answer. They have a list of suggested books to read after you’ve finished the Harry Potter saga.

Looking over the lists, I’ve read several of these and Hubby has read more, but I think I’m going to make it “goal” of sorts to try to read as many of the fantasy titles as I can. I would like read some of the science fiction ones, too, as it’s been years since I read The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and I’ve always want to read Dune (Dune Chronicles, Book 1).

I read The Lord of the Rings when I was in the Army, to impress some guy who considered the books the thing he’d built his life around, but I don’t really remember much. Now that I’m older and have seen all the movies and understand more of the significance of the story, I want to go back and read them again.

What books do you have that you’ve always wanted to read? What would you suggest for someone finishing up Harry Potter’s story and looking for more in the same magical vein? Tell me and maybe I’ll add it to my list.

Time is getting shorter! The cruise for the Caribbean in getting closer. Check out this page. We’re going to have a great time and I’d love to see all of you there! I know Susan and I have been posting some of our preparation updates over at RomanceNovelTV. You should come by and check in.

My update on the cruise: I’ll be flying into Orlando around 2:30 pm on 21 Jul. A check of my wardrobe shows that I’m in desperate need of cruise worthy clothes, so I’ve been digging through my fabric stash to make some new stuff. So far I’ve cut out a flippy skirt and I’m about half way finished with it. I’ve order some lime twill fabric for pants but I don’t know if it’ll arrive in time. I think I’ve got some white with pink palms on it that I’ll make another skirt. I think with a few bright colored t-shirts, I’ll be set to play jet setter on the cruise. I still need a bathing suit, but I’ll see about getting on next week.

Writing Update:

I’m still waist deep in edits and rewrites for Sword & Illusion. Part of the delay is that I’ve taken out a pivotal incident (it was necessary for the plot but didn’t make sense for the characters and the story) and that requires a lot of fiddlin’ to make things work around it and new scenes added to have things make sense.

Weight loss Update:

Weight Watchers Day: Down 1 pound! That’s 14 pounds total.

Book Review Update:

No one commented on my review of Divine By Mistake so I will give it away to a friend. Tomorrow I’ll do a review of another book, and the same give away rules will apply. Anyone who comments and says they want the book will be entered into a drawing to win it.

Other Author Work Update:

I’m judging the Chick Lit Writers of the World Get Your Stiletto in the Door contest, the inspirational category. I have three more entries to judge before the 15th of Jul.