Geekdom

I'm totally geeking out.

I love an author who inserts tributes into her books, and tributes to the things I'm obsessive passionate about make me giddy with insidery geekiness.

In the space of a few pages, CE Murphy's latest, Walking Dead, references Star Wars (lightsabers), Supernatural (shotgun loaded with rock salt, holy water in sprinklers*), Firefly (big damn heroes), and The Princess Bride (rodents of [un]usual size).

CE Murphy is so cool. (And powerful. I wasn't allowed to say "My hair was doing its Hermione Granger impression" in one of my books, and hers is peppered with pop culture--even some things I have to look up!)

*Salt and holy water are standards in mythology, so it's likely she came up with these before the SPN writers did. It still feels like a tribute. :)
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I paused in reading to write the above, and planned to leave it at that. But I loved the book so much that my geeking out made me not pay attention to what I was reading, so I decided to write more.

Generally speaking, I don't want to be the next anybody. I have my own voice and my own style, and I want people to chomp at the bit to get the new Natalie J. Damschroder book because it's not like anything else they read. But there are a couple of authors I want to emulate. I want to make readers feel the way I feel when I read them. CE Murphy is one.

Though I have a lot of friends who are authors, she's not one of them. She doesn't know me from Adam, but I read her blog. What she says there makes me marvel even more. I'm reading this book, and it's so perfect. The balance of action and introspection, the level of humor, the characterization, the progression of events. Nothing lags or fluctuates.

The thing is, because I read her blog, I know this book didn't start out this way. Most of her books, she talks about rewriting a third or two thirds of the original. Her agent gives her revisions, then her editor gives her revisions, sometimes twice. She works really hard. But it's skill that makes her hard work result in such a good book. I thrill to it as a reader, and I'm challenged as a writer to achieve her level, eventually. The little bud of despair that I might never make it? I refuse to water it or offer it any sunlight.

So that's all. Now I'm going to debate myself over spending the rest of my time in the auto service waiting room reading this awesome book, or writing my own.

Triumphs and Frustrations

Today was loaded with triumphs and frustrations.

I spent the entire--and I mean ENTIRE day working on the kids' computers. They had a .NET problem for the past year that I've tried to fix intermittently, but never could get working right.

Triumph
Today I found the right utility and got that taken care of on both computers. That enabled me to load service pack 2 on both, so they're fully updated now.

Frustration
Number One's computer is having major problems, though. I bought Registry Mechanic and ran that, hoping the startup problems it detected would solve the issue, but it didn't.

Triumph
I researched the problem, and many similar issues seemed to be solved by replacing the PSU (power supply unit). So I went and bought a PSU and swapped them out. That's the triumph. I'm always proud of my success at techie stuff like that. But it's marred by...

Frustration
It still didn't solve the problem. So I'm going to have to take the computer to someone, unless one of my super-smart blog readers can tell me what is probably wrong when the computer turns on but won't boot up--the power button stays orange and everything has power, especially the fan, which revs to jet engine levels. We power it down, then try again. And again, and again, and again, and again, and again, and again. And then one more time. And then it boots, and is fine. Until we shut down or restart, and go through it all over again.

Triumph
My iPod case broke this weekend. It was nothing special, just a slip-in case that came with my iPod Photo years ago, and I use it for my iPod Classic now. But the clip came off, and since I primarily use the iPod when I'm working out or grocery shopping, I MUST have a clip.

So at Staples I also bought a new case. And while I was at it, I grabbed some new earbuds, as the old ones were getting grody (a novelty, since they usually crap out before then). The case is leather and has windows, so I never have to take the iPod out again, and the earbuds slipped divinely into my ears and stayed there without wedging or compressing, which means they won't hurt even when I do an hour on the treadmill or a marathon shopping session.

The even bigger triumph? I saved 9 bucks with my toner recycling rewards. \o/

Your turn. Any triumphs or frustrations today?

Nature Wins Out

I'm a pretty self-aware person. I think it comes, in part, from being a writer, and having to dig deep into what makes people who they are. But there are some fundamental things I know about myself:

1. I need 8 hours of sleep a night.

2. I am required to get up at 6:20 a.m. on weekdays, and sometimes even earlier on weekends with away soccer games that the bleeping officials set for first thing in the morning even though we have to travel nearly 2 hours to get there.

3. I am not a morning person. It's difficult to struggle out of bed any day, never mind when I'm operating on too-little sleep.

I've known these things for a very long time. Before my kids started school. Before I had a 45-minute commute to an early day job. Before I scheduled 8:30 classes in college (frosh mistake--I hate being a cliché!). So why is it such a challenge for me? Simple equation:

Bed at 10:00 + Up at 6:20 = full complement of sleep = happy Natalie

But there are a couple of other factors that trump this self-awareness and solid logic. I'm not only not a morning person, I'm very much a night person. My body tries very, very hard to follow its preferred pattern: Stay up until 3:00 a.m., sleep until 11:00 a.m., repeat cycle. Some nights this summer I was up until 4 or even 4:30, and it was easy. I wasn't tired! Not at any point during the day!

Yes, some of it is a matter of training. If I force myself to go to bed at 10:00 or 11:00, I can maintain the week with no trouble. So far, I haven't been able to make that happen. The problem is work.

Any of you who freelance or work for yourselves know that one of the drawbacks is constant availability. It's okay if I don't do this data entry while the kids are at school, because I can do it after they go to bed. I'll critique this friend's manuscript over the weekend, which will let me work on my own book Monday...until the proofing jobs come in, pushing the writing back to after the football game. That kind of thing.

So what happens is I come back down to my office after the kids are in bed, and that's it. I keep working and working until it's stupid time, then I need unwinding time (pleasure reading, and--an unfortunate side effect--a snack, because it's been 5 or 6 hours since dinner and my stomach is growling).

It wouldn't be so difficult if I got progressively tired. But I don't. I'm at my most tired between 3 and 7 in the afternoon/evening. But I have to push through, because of after-school stuff and soccer practices and meetings and school events and kids' bedtime activities. Then I have my second wind, and if I'm not tired, I should be productive!

Then the alarm goes off at 6:00 a.m., and I want to stab somebody in the head for being such an idiot.

After three solid years of this with no real change, I've come to decide that imposition of a "smart" pattern is impossible. Nature is winning, and all I can do is hold on until the kids are both old enough to not need me, and then I can follow my own pattern...for the rest of my life, if I'm lucky.

I know Mary either has the opposite nature or has greater control over her natural rhythms (as evidenced by daily 4:00 a.m. blog posts). How about the rest of you?

Let's Not Do That Again, M'Kay?

I felt like I was watching the Browns.

But kudos to Stephen Gostkowski for being unafraid to dig around another man's crotch to secure a fumbled football. That takes a real man! LOL

Boo to the media for being too afraid to post a picture of the recovery. This will have to do, until I'm told to take it down:

Photo by Jim Davis, Boston Globe

Are You Ready for Some Footbaaaaaall?

see more Lolcats and funny pictures


I know, the NFL officially kicked off last Thursday, and most of the games were played yesterday, but my team plays tonight, so THIS is the kickoff of MY football season.

Yeah, like any of you care.

BEST. EPISODE. EVAR.

An hour and a half ago, my husband went up to bed. I said I'd be up shortly. He said, "see you at 1." Well, look at that. He's prescient.

I've spent the last hour reading some discussions of the announced closing of Quartet Press. I'm exasperatedly amused by people. I am still quite uncertain of what ACTUALLY happened, and while I've speculated, my ideas haven't been in the same realm of other people's. I mean, people who've never started a business yet assume that it's so easy to figure out every single possible startup cost BEFORE you announce the formation of your business. People who really don't know what a business plan is who assume that "certain costs didn't line up with projections" means "we never bothered to create a business plan." Sheesh.

And hey, how about those people who are blasting us 7 authors who contracted with Quartet for getting what we deserved, taking a chance on a startup? Uh, sorry, I knew exactly what I was doing, and I'm not harmed in the slightest by this development. Disappointed, yes. "Destroyed," no. You know what I get? Reversion of rights on a book that is now 1,000% better than it was a month ago.

Here's a point: Many authors pay hundreds for the free editorial I just got, and now I can submit this book elsewhere if I so choose.

Then there are those who are scoffing at all the "hype" and taking the closing to mean the people involved in Quartet AREN'T smart, savvy businesspeople. Well, maybe they're not. I'm not in a position to say. But the "hype" wasn't hype, it was buzz, and everyone was watching to see what would happen, not predicting the saviors of digital publishing, for cripe's sake.

Anyway. That's really not what I was going to post about.

*takes off author hat*

*puts on fangirl hat*

OMG. There is so much joy in me over tonight's (last night's, but I haven't gone to bed yet) episode of Supernatural. It gushed all over my keyboard earlier. Now I'm tired, so it's just a bloat of joy instead of a geyser.

I knew immediately, with "The Road So Far," that this season was going to be AWESOME. AC/DC, the fast-moving clips--it said, "Please keep hands and feet inside the car at all times. Fasten your seatbelts, hold on, and enjoy the ride!"

And then it flung us out into space.

The size and sound of Lucifer's rise. The boys appearing in an airplane, then just missing the burst from the convent. It was disorienting to see them suddenly in a car, NOT the Impala, but it wasn't choppy editing, it was symbolic of how they had to be feeling.

Then Dean slams a bloody hand on the door and sends the angels soaring. Like, WHOA. I tried to figure out when he did that, but we only saw him turn away from Sam and Chuck. Speaking of, OW, but *laughs*.

Then the continuity, OHHHH, the continuity! Dean had been at Bobby's when the angels took him, so that's where the Impala was, so of course Bobby brings the Impala to them. And of course a demon follows and rides him inside. Number One totally called his possession. She flat out didn't believe he'd say those things to Sam. But I hesitated to guess that, because I guessed it at the end of last season, when he questioned if they should just let Sam out to do what he was capable of doing.

Then came the biggest gasp. I expected Bobby to knife the demon behind him, but himself? No one can ever say now that Bobby is not teh awesome.

The whole sword of Michael thing was so cool, too, how they tricked Dean into going there, and upped the stakes over and over, but Dean just kept saying no, and then CASTIEL.

We had some debate over what happened there. I first thought "Ha, Michael doesn't want that meat suit, Zachariah!" but as soon as Castiel started talking (after his badass fight--so much better than his fights last season), I thought "geez, no, that's god getting involved there." One of my friends doesn't trust him, thinks maybe Lucifer put him back together and got him involved, mainly because he was knifing angels. Or she thinks Michael. But I thought Zachariah was far too certain that Michael would just dive right into Dean as soon as he allowed it. Seems like he had to have been guided by Michael in that. I could be wrong, he could just be assuming Michael would take his place at the head of the army. So I'm thinking maybe Gabriel is the one who put Castiel back together and sent him in there. After all, he was knifing angels who'd defied God's will, who had actually stopped believing God was "in charge" anymore. If Anna had a death sentence for a bit of doubt and longing for emotion, and Lucifer was imprisoned for siding with the angels over humanity, then these guys actually got off easily.

So I'm reserving judgment on Castiel.

I saw the clip with the fangirl, so my delight over her was diminished due to repetition, but we giggled over her fanfic and her Galaxy Quest-esque reaction to Chuck's call. How many wanted to be her, feeling up Sam's chest? Show of hands. *raises hand* And how many wanted to comfort Dean and assure him we love him just the way he is? Show of hands. *raises hand*

We returned to teh awesomeness of Bobby back at the hospital, when he roared at the doctor over his caution that he might not walk again. Dean's speech in the hospital room was great, especially the GED/attitude line.

I loved the entire show so much, even though I knew I should be sad at the ending, I couldn't stop smiling. Partly because I know this is pretty much rock bottom for the brothers, and they'll be going up--maybe not directly from here, but it can't take too long for the healing to begin. I mean, Sam made some very poor decisions and let himself be manipulated, but his intentions were always, always good, and you can't argue with the fact that he did save lives. In the big picture, I can't condemn him.

Of course, Dean's pain doesn't come from the big picture. It can't. He's just as culpable. He was pushed to it, manipulated exactly the same (well, okay, not exactly) by Alistair into breaking the first seal. If he hadn't done that, Sam never would have been able to break the last one. So they have to be considered equal there. (I kept waiting for Dean to confess. I don't think he ever really did last season, so I'm not sure if Sam and Bobby know he started things off.)

Anyway, Dean's pain and his lack of trust don't stem from the end result of Sam's journey. They stem from that one moment when Sam broke with Dean and chose Ruby over him, almost killed him, in fact. It's completely personal and justified. And he's absolutely right, they can never go back to what they had before. But in the long run, they'll build something new, stronger, healthier, and probably far more worth loving by the fandom.

And that's saying something. :)

IT'S ALMOST TIME

I kept forgetting. I had a meeting today with some other authors, and we talked and talked about everything under the sun. Then I'd remember at random moments...

Tonight is Supernatural!!!!!!!!!!

And I'd feel a squeal of glee.

Now it's half an hour away, and I can't waaaaiiiiiiiiiiitttttttt!!!!!!!!!!!!


Off to make popcorn!

Welcome Guest Blogger MJ Fredrick!

I’ve always written stories to relax, telling myself stories to go to sleep, telling myself stories on road trips, telling myself stories because I liked having a situation I could manipulate to please me. Sometimes it meant having a movie star fall in love with me—yes, I wrote a lot of Mary Sue heroines. I was able to take mental trips to places I couldn’t afford to go, to have adventures I am not brave enough to have.

Never was writing more of an escape than the summer I started writing Beneath the Surface. I’d ended a terrible school year with the principal from hell. I was ready to give up my teaching certificate if I couldn’t get another job. My grandmother, who I loved with my whole heart, fell and hit her head and was in the hospital that summer. At first everything seemed fine, and she was sent home, but she wouldn’t eat so had to go back into the hospital and eventually into a nursing home and then to hospice.

I spent time every day wherever she was, and I’d come home and write. I wrote about adventure and treasure and lost love reunited. I wrote about pain and sorrow and loss. All the time I wrote, I knew this was the first book of mine my grandmother wouldn’t read, but I wrote, every day, diving into the world of Adrian and Mallory, digging to find their conflict, revealing the love that had only been buried. I could find joy in this world, no matter what bad happened to Adrian and Mallory, I knew they would have a happy ending.

That’s what I tell people who ask me why I love to write and read romance. No matter how bad anything else is, I know I’ll find a happy ending in the pages of a romance.

Here’s the blurb for Beneath the Surface:

In retrospect, perhaps archaeologist Mallory Reeves shouldn’t have delivered the divorce papers to her estranged husband mere weeks before her marriage to another man. She knew seeing Adrian again would stir up memories, but she didn’t expect so many of them to be good, not after the mess they both made three years ago. She also didn’t expect to want to stay at the dig site on the Yucatan Peninsula. But the lure of the ancient ship and, yes, her sexy ex provide more of a draw than the white picket fence she thought she wanted.

Marine archaeologist Adrian Reeves has good reason to trust no one. His former partner—and former best friend—made off with his last archaeological find. And his wife left him, frustrated by his obsession for professional revenge. Now both Mallory and his nemesis have returned, and it can’t be an accident that they’ve turned up in the middle of the most important excavation of his career. Seeing her again unearths old pain—and rekindles never-forgotten desire. Now he has to decide if he can trust Mallory again. More importantly, if he can trust himself with her.

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Thanks, MJ, for guesting here today! I can't wait to read BTS!

Or is it EVP?

I had a weird moment the other night. I was getting into bed, and the "in use" indicator on the telephone on my nightstand was flashing. It was, like, one in the morning, so there was no reason for that. I picked up the phone, and the screen said "line in use." Trepidatiously, I hit the "on" button. Static. And then an electronic noise similar to a fax machine, but not exactly like a fax machine. I turned the phone off and then on, and it was gone.

"This is how every paranormal horror movie starts," I thought.

But then I figured it out. The TiVo/DVR was probably calling in for updates. That had to be it.

Right?

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I have a deficiency of book discussion on this blog, and I harbor a fairly high level of guilt about it. I'm so afraid I'll miss one friend's release or announcement, that I just don't mention any. Ditto when I read books by people I know--I don't want anyone to feel bad that I neglected to post about their book, so I don't post about any reading, most of the time. But there is one surefire way to make absolutely certain I'll post about you and your book--be a guest blogger! :)

So tomorrow I'll be thrilled to host MJ Fredrick, author of Hot Shot, Where There's Smoke, and last week's release, Beneath the Surface. She'll be talking about writing as escape, so don't miss it!

Cohesive Fail

I can't seem to post a single-topic post this week. *shrugs*

I'm doing some Facebook catching up right now, and this appears a lot:

" No one should die because they cannot afford health care, and no one should go broke because they get sick. If you agree, please post this as your status for the rest of the day."

At first, who posted it made sense. The first three or four were authors, and we're a small world. But then I saw Christopher Lennertz, a composer (video games, movies, and SUPERNATURAL), who is very much not in the same world. Kinda cool.

I don't care how many people tell us technology is distancing us from each other, I keep seeing more and more ways it's doing the opposite.

~~~~~~~~~~~

So today Number One was telling me about this story she's reading in English. She gives a little rundown of the story, and says as she read, first thing she thought was "The Benders!" I said, "Ray Bradbury, The Most Dangerous Game" and she was floored that I knew what she was talking about. *snort* Kids.

(But srsly, as good as Bradbury is, and as teachable as that story is, why does generation after generation get taught the same musty old literature? How about some contemporary stuff that comments on the human condition NOW? Mix it up a little, people.)

~~~~~~~~~~~

Productive day today. Cleaned my office (whoa, there's carpet in here!) and did my filing, which necessitated spreading the foot-tall pile over the pool table. To-do list is decimated. Not really smaller, but it was a good day.

Now I'm off to watch some Supernatural season 4 DVD bonus features and write an analysis for Supernatural Sisters! Check it out. After midnight. Central time.

Night!

First Week of School Annoyances

1. Teachers who have typos or errors in their course descriptions. "Everyday" is an adjective. And yes, I made proofreading marks on half of Number One's papers I had to sign.

2. Parents who ignore the rules, particularly pertaining to drop-offs. The ones who stop dead center in front of the walk to the main doors instead of pulling up so five more cars can fit and drop kids at the same time are irritating. What, their preshus babays can't walk 15 more feet?! But worse are the ones who stop in the passing lane because they don't want to wait their friggin' turn. They hold up the flow of traffic, endanger their kids, and risk fender benders. Morons.

3. Time speeding by at three times the speed it did in the summer, so I only seem to get a third as much done, despite being alone with no interruptions (except Tracy)!

4. The need to eat. I'm trying to work on my book, and my growling stomach is totally distracting.

5. People who post answers on loops several days after ten other people already posted the same answers. I admit I learned the hard way, but I read all my mail before I answer it, because other people's time is valuable and I don't want to look like a moron.

6. Not getting e-mails back when I want them. This one is totally internal because I don't expect everyone to work on my timetable. That would be obnoxious. Still, it would be nice to get the ones I'm waiting for now, instead of in half an hour when I'll be deep in an escape scene (or, even better, the last few pages of the book!) and will be compelled to break the flow to address the issues related to the e-mail. (I have problems leaving things hanging.)

7. All the Supernatural stuff flowing around me. I gave in and watched a clip, and it didn't ease my gnawing need for the show, it made it worse. And reminded me there are tons of reports out there from Vancouver, and I don't have time to go find them and read them, but the addiction is giving me the shakes. September 10th is toooo far away!

8. Computers that need serious maintenance when I don't have time to do it! (Not mine, knock wood).


Not everything is annoying. I am alone, so I can work guilt-free. The inevitable bus issues on Monday were quickly worked out, and even Number One's horrible first day was eradicated by how well the second day went. Our evenings are busy, but not to the level of hectic, and tonight I have virtually no obligations. Looking forward to weekend activities and not even minding the school schedule that gives us a four-day weekend.

Now, if I could just get through this to-do list...

Hit and Run

I have a ton of stuff to fill the rest of my day (contest judging, website proofreading, text rewriting, novel revising) but I was just catching up on e-mail. I looked at the "33 of 44" on the bottom, all 11 of which came in as I was answering earlier ones, so I don't know what they are or who they're from. There's such a feeling of anticipation, because any of those could bring good news, something exciting, or a lovely compliment.

Of course, they could also be spam from "threateninggoat.com" asking if I'm looking for the Fountain of Youth.

Does anyone else feel that way when they're checking e-mail, or am I just weird?

Uh-Oh

Last year sometime, we bought a Wii, partly because it's cool and everyone has one, partly because it's more active than watching TV. We have a few games, but some of them are either too sedentary, or the family pretends they are. And Wii Sports can only go so far before you get bored, you know?

So this week we went and got Wii Sports Resort. And OMG.

1. I killed 2 hours today playing. What? Deadline? Yeah, I'm on track. Just have a little bit more to do today. What do you mean it's not today anymore?!

2. To use another definition of the verb, I kill at swordfighting. Not the platform. And not the speed slicing, though I love that. J just has faster reflexes than I do (but not faster than Number Two). No, I slice through my opponents on the swordmaster one like they're butter. My level is over 500 already, and I just started today.

3. While I suck rotten ostrich eggs at anything to do with frisbees and am only passable at basketball and archery, I am a MASTER at wakeboarding. Okay, not Master with a capital M. I'm 52 points behind Number Two. But it was gratifying to beat J at it after he slaughtered me on frisbee golf. It told me to give up. Srsly!

4. My right arm is going to fall off. It aches right now, shoulder to elbow, and it's that kind of crampy, deep-seated ache you know will mean when I get up in the morning it won't move. And if I force it, you'll hear the screams in Transylvania.

5. I wonder how good I am at left-handed swordfighting?

Sunday Stuff

Dream Update:

Last night I was an intern working for editor Fred Kirsch of Patriots Football Weekly only his office wasn't in Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts, it was at the beach in South Carolina. He had three turtles in his jacuzzi bathtub.

But the horrible/weird part was that I was driving on a big bridge high over deep water and saw a school bus flip sideways off the bridge. Something else happened that sidetracked me before I could do anything, so later I guess my subconscious felt guilty because I saw two other kinds of buses deliberately drive off bridges, and it was apparently in solidarity for two drivers who had died the week before because of negligent maintenance or something.

~~~~~~~~~

The booksigning went really well yesterday. Because I'm not as good as some of my fellow authors (not the ones at the event) at total pushiness and forcing my books on people who clearly don't have an interest, I only sold one. We had fairly steady walk-through, though, and altogether they took in enough to donate $500 to the Lebanon Library, so that was worth it.

I barely got home alive, though, I was so tired (despite getting enough sleep all week, it's clearly not quality sleep). I dozed off on the couch for the 45 minutes before I had to take Number One and her friend to the movies, and while I did, Frisbee dozed with me.



After, of course, kneading my face along with the pillow and grooming my hairstyle into one more to her liking:



The Time-Traveler's Wife was pretty good. (Mild Spoilers)

I haven't read the book, but I bet it's better. The movie had weaknesses--part of it jumped from one unimportant travel to another, and even the "important" scenes felt short and episodic. There were allusions to things that made him travel, like alcohol and being in a TV store. These allusions were contradictory to the visual evidence that he was mostly passive in the whole thing. There were a lot of unanswered questions. He had a genetic anomaly that he could pass on to a child, but where did he get it?

There were strengths, too, mostly between Henry and Clare. When they first meet as adults, it's hot. I adore Rachel McAdams, and she did a great job. I loved that even when traveling caused big problems, Henry never apologized. It wasn't his fault, and he couldn't control it. Other than his frequent absences, though, there was a dearth of meat until the pregnancy issues started. I wanted more with Dr. Kendrick, more of the science of it, more showing of how he got to be the sophisticated, wordly man who first appeared to Clare when she was 6, instead of the helpless one she meets as an adult. It's hard to pack all that into a movie, and what they did pack in was good enough to make me cry.

Warning for those like me who hate to be blindsided:

This is not a feel-good movie. Though, at least, probably most of us guess that going in.

We saw a preview for The Blind Side, I think it's called, where Sandra Bullock plays a real-life rich mom who takes in a very underprivileged boy. The damn TRAILER made me tear up! This one will undoubtedly be feel-good, at the end.

Two weeks left of summer. Two weeks left on my two deadlines. I'd better get to work.

I Can't Help Myself...

I'm seeing a lot of mini-blogging about this.

Nutshell: A woman was raped in a hotel parking garage at gunpoint in front of her children, with the rapist threatening their lives. There is little more horrifying than that. Her rapist was captured, prosecuted, and sentenced. Though that's more justice than a lot of women get, I doubt it went very far toward her recovery.

The woman then filed a lawsuit against the Marriott, claiming they knew the rapist was hanging around and did nothing.

The gist of the Twitters and Facebook status outrage is that the Marriott defense, in part, says she failed to exercise due care, interpreted by the public as blaming her for her own rape.

That's unconscionable, but it's the LAWYERS who are doing that. The LAWYERS are the soulless, unfeeling freaks who would apply standard response language (according to other lawyers in the comments of the linked article). I say the lawyers are working for Marriott so the defendant should have a say in how the defense is mounted, but someone else said it's in the insurance company's hands, not the hotels, and if there is anyone more soulless and unfeeling than lawyers, it's insurance companies. I mean, we've all got to agree with that, right?

Another detail is that the woman is only suing for $15,000. I don't think this is true. The article says MORE THAN $15,000, and another attorney in the comments said this is also a standard factor in Connecticut law, that they have to prove the case is worth at least that much. Most companies are smart enough to settle a case that's going to make them look bad, so they either got really bad legal advice (by someone seeking a spotlight, maybe?), or they know the case could cost them millions, maybe billions, once it goes to court. It's also possible they are trying to avoid a precedent. If they settle this, how many people are going to come out of the woodwork trying to blame hotels for things that happened in them?

Part of the prosecution argument is that the man was hanging around for days before the rape, that hotel staff saw him, and no one did anything about it.

1. How do they know he was hanging around? If the woman saw him, why didn't she report it?

2. If two separate security people and a staff person all later admitted they saw him but none of them knew others saw him, how would they have known their one spotting was part of a pattern? One person has to see someone multiple times to recognize loitering.

3. Someone in the comments to the article said all security had to do was ask him if he's a guest and if not, kick him off the property.

3a. Yeah, 'cuz he's going to admit that he's not staying in the hotel (and hey, maybe he was--the article doesn't say).
3b. Do people realize how many thousands of people go through a hotel every day? The turnover of guests over a week probably numbers in five digits, PLUS you don't have to be a guest at the hotel to be on the premises--a conference could have hundreds of people attending it who aren't guests of the hotel. I was in the Waldman Park Marriott a few weeks ago for HOURS. I was in the same spot multiple times. I could have gone to my car in the parking garage two or three times during the day. They should have asked me if I was a guest and kicked me off the premises...oh, except I don't think any staff saw me, beyond the server in the restaurant and maybe the bartender in the bar, several hours later.

I am NOT blaming the victim here. What happened to her is horrifying and my heart breaks for her and her children. I totally understand the need to lash out and place blame as part of the healing process. Maybe there WERE things the Marriott staff could have done. I don't think the attorneys were wise in the way they laid out the defense, and I also think they should have just settled and kept it quiet (though if this was filed over a year ago, maybe they tried and she wouldn't).

But I'm not going to assume extreme negligence by the staff based on a few lines in a news story, nor do I think boycotting the company who licensed their name to the hotel will have any impact, though I wouldn't tell anyone not to do it--that's personal principle.

Mini-blogging and our short attention spans/lack of time have given us more opportunities for knee-jerk reactions to bits of information, and this post is my rebellion against that. Feel free to call me names in the comments; I'll feel free to delete them. :)

Disclaimer: The article I'm referencing seems to have its dates wrong. It says the woman filed suit against the hotel in May 2008 and that her rape occurred on October 10, 2008, which is obviously impossible. Therefore, many things in the article could also be wrong, invalidating anything I said.

Craziness

Okay, that's not craziness. It's just an official "Up to Speed" recap reel. But look at the end! Looklooklook! It's the new title card, I think! And I LOVE it.

Interestingly, the background looks very much like the sky in my dream last night (one of them), and that's kind of freaky. Or crazy.

It used to be that when I wasn't writing for long stretches, I'd have these heavy-duty, vivid dreams. Exhausting ones, where I didn't feel like I'd slept at all, like I was doing the stuff in my dreams instead of resting. Once I started writing regularly, though, they subsided back to normal vague random brain-firings.

Not anymore.

Though I've been writing, and very hard, my dreams just seem to be getting worse. This morning I had these two doozies:

First, Number One was trying to fix or change an outlet in her room, but it wasn't going right. She hadn't turned off the breaker for her room, so I went down to do it. When I tried, it caused an EMP above the house. A brilliant white-purple flash of light that coalesced and burst. I did it three times, then tried to turn off the main breaker, which seemed to do fine, except stuff in the house still worked (electrically speaking).

I went outside to see what was over the house, because authorities were showing up. There were swirling clouds and flashing lights (in the dark sky), like the government had sent a satellite over us, and at one point I thought I'd actually signaled aliens.

Then the dream abruptly changed. I was back at the beach, though it wasn't Myrtle but somewhere else. I'd gotten separated from J and the kids and was walking on the street just off the beach, talking to some friends. The tide was in, and suddenly a big wave soared in and broke against the sea wall. But it didn't recede, it just covered the beach.

I couldn't reach J by cell phone, he'd forwarded to his work phone, which had a recording that he was out of the office for a week. I kept calling and calling as I wandered the street, looking, terrified that they'd been on the sand. Then the waves kept flowing inland, until I was being pushed forward, like upright bodysurfing. A couple of kids near me said it was so cool, and I said "Yeah, except for the people who drowned." Then my subconscious reprimanded me, because I felt bad for pointing that horrible thing out to them.

I guess at some point J called me, because I was then in my former boss's house while I talked to him. I didn't ask about the kids! But after I got off the phone, I assumed he'd have said if they weren't with him and okay.

I don't remember why, maybe I was pushed under the house by the water and was kind of trapped, but I had to climb up inside the house. After I did, other people showed up, including John Locke, except the way he was acting, I figured it was that other guy from last season's finale (LOST, for those who don't watch it). I saw a guy in a mirror who wasn't really there, but who was, and I scowled and scolded him for being invisible.

Oh, and I'm not sure when it was, but at some point, I was on a residential city street and there was a cat in a tree, and a guy was acting like it was about to fall out, and I was gonna scoff and say it wasn't, because really, that doesn't happen. And then it did, but the woman I was with caught it. I didn't recognize her, but I think it was supposed to be Lori. So if anyone has a white and orange long-haired cat who is prone to treeing itself--it's okay. You can come pick it up during the next REM cycle.

The weird thing about that part (yeah, I know, like the whole thing isn't weird) is that there were food dishes hanging from strings tied to tree branches, and I was like, "do they entice the poor cat up there?" And there was a red plastic curvy slide-type thing, and I think the cat was supposed to slide down it. I realized it was attached to a special truck that looked like a fire truck but was just for rescuing cats. Except no one was manning it, they'd apparently gotten tired of trying and just left the poor cat to fall onto the sidewalk.

So there you have it. A peek inside the insanity of my subconscious.

What did you dream about last night?

Booksigning Saturday!

Waldenbooks Lebanon Valley Mall

10% of the proceeds to benefit the Lebanon Library.

SATURDAY AUGUST 15TH
MULTI AUTHOR BOOKSIGNING
10-11 a.m. discussion panel on how to become an author with a publishing contract with Megan Hart, Savannah Russe, Mindy Klasky, and Maria V. Snyder

11 a.m.-4 p.m. Author Signings

Angela Ginnetto
Romance

Vicky Burkholder
Romance

Victoria Smith
Romance

Misty Simon
Romance and Mystery











Arthur Ford
Local Interest

T.K. Marion
Civil War

Natalie Damschroder
Romance and Erotic Romance

















Brian Keene
Horror

Savannah Russe
Paranormal Romance

Byron N. Morrison
Fantasy

Sandra Asher
Childrens

Charlene Haines
Young Adult

Kelly Ann Butterbaugh
Children’s History

Doris Washington
Poetry

Robert Vogel
Fiction

Dr. Dewey Shaak
Memoir

Richard Curtin
Military fiction

Dr. Laszlo Geder
Memoir

Mindy Klasky
Fiction

Frank Bittinger
Horror

J.F. Gonzalez
Horror

Maria V. Snyder
Fantasy

Joan Landis
Self Help

Megan Hart
Erotic Romance
















Lucy Finn
Romance

Andy Pete
Fantasy

List subject to change without notice

Prize drawings!

Let Me Be Random

I'm ba-ack! Yay.

So I've traveled a lot this summer. Tennessee for a week, Maryland for a soccer game, DC two days in a row for a booksigning and then professional meetings, New York and back, and then Myrtle Beach. The longer trips put us through West Virginia, Virginia, and North Carolina. That's a lot of states in 7 weeks.

What I've found really interesting is that gas prices have been essentially the same everywhere I went, even New York City. I've been amazed by that. Of course, I made that observation, then got home and gas here in Podunkville, PA, is 20 cents a gallon higher than it was yesterday in Myrtle Beach, Ultra-Commercial Vacationville. That's, like, opposite how things usually are.

Most of you probably don't pay attention, but if you look, you'll see this post was put up around 2:30 a.m.-ish. I got up this morning, did some chores, and spent several hours working (both household and professional stuff). I didn't do the four most important things on my list before the family talked me into a movie, and I had to do grocery shopping (yes, I live in the freakin' grocery store!!!). Then I made dinner. I came back and did two of the important things, but it was 10:30 and my brain was fogged, so doing the other two important things would be stupid. They need a sharp brain. So I brainstormed with a friend who's writing proposals for her publisher, and started catching up on blog reading. Which I've just completed (almost), and it inspired me to blog.

But now I feel I wasted four hours of what could have been productive time. It wouldn't have been. Revisions and critiques are a lot harder than reading blogs. Especially when I don't comment.

Then I felt guilty, because Jessica/jade_kadir did a meme that said I was one of the three people she talks to most online, and with vacation and busyness that led to late reading, I've been very silent lately. And Gail/un_conscience said no one seemed interested in her SPN recaps, and I totally am, but never commented on them...ref. vacation and busyness and reading several days after the post went up.

But even when I'm not busy, I don't comment much, on any of the blogs I read. Sometimes it's because I tend to read them late at night, like I did tonight, and that generally means tired brain = can't think of pithy comments. Sometimes I don't even need that excuse, I just don't have anything to contribute. But it doesn't mean the people I'm reading are shouting into the wilderness. I'm always entertained and they are always making a connection, even if they don't know it.

I need to become better about telling them.

I saw two movies this weekend. Friday, while J and Number One saw GI Joe, Number Two and I saw Aliens in the Attic. I was pleasantly surprised. It was funny, and decently acted, and far, far better than, say, the Hannah Montana movie. Today Number Two talked Daddy into seeing that with her, and Number One and I went to (500) Days of Summer. I knew it was one of those typically downer-topiced indies, but I've loved Joseph Gordon-Levitt since Third Rock from the Sun and Zooey Deschanel is decent. I found the movie delightful, because it did three things:

1. Used a non-linear timeline to break up the downer stuff with happy stuff.

2. Made the downer stuff funny, even while it was tragic.

3. Ended on a high note.

So definitely worth the price of a ticket.

The downside to taking vacation at the beginning of August is that when you get back, the month is nearly half gone. I know, the math doesn't compute, we were only gone 8 days, but yeah. I have 22 days to my deadline, and must finish the paid critique before then, too, and the schedule is full of soccer and back-to-school stuff, and if I have time to blog at all, it will probably be at 2:42 a.m. every time.

I know. I can see you wincing. Me, too.

Winding Down

The rest of the week has become a blur. We did the beach the last two days, and it didn't storm, but we all did get a little roasted. I keep lamenting my inability to stay at the beach for an entire day, like we always did when we were kids, but MAN, the sun is so much stronger now. I blame Tiffany Amber-Thiessen and her can of hairspray per episode.

I've changed in other ways, too. When we first got here, I kept scoffing at the beach club pool. I mean, we had the whole friggin' ocean at our feet! But then Wednesday, we rinsed off and swam in the pool before driving back to the resort, and that was actually kind of nice. Soothing, after the action of the waves and the stickiness of the salt and graininess of the sand.

One thing that hasn't changed is my preference for northern beaches. When the water temperature is only five degrees cooler than the air, there's nothing refreshing about it. I don't want to take a bath, I want to cool off from the deadly heat and humidity.

Gah. I sound like such a complainer! I'm at the beach. On vacation. And really, I'm loving it. I just spent so much time at the beach when I was a kid, my brain won't stop making comparisons.

Yesterday we did a banana boat ride. O. M. G. My arms ache like crazy. The ad on the website says all you have to do is hold on! HA. That's all. We were waiting by the water, watching the previous group coming in, and they capsized twice. That freaked out Number Two, and I tried to give her an out, but the boat was there and she said it was too late, so we got on, and she fretted the whole time about getting dumped in the ocean, a mile from shore, and I fretted about her fretting. Other than that, it was FUN. We had one near mishap when we tilted a little too far right and Number One, who was in the front and the most difficult position to hold on to (not to mention, facing the spray), nearly got dumped off. She wound up sprawled across the boat on her stomach. The guy running the Jet Ski pulling the boat was very good, though. He stopped immediately so we could right ourselves, and most of the ride, he hit the waves in the easiest possible way to stay on.

So we're aiming in to shore. I'd told Number Two we wouldn't capsize. Then we're almost there, and a wave tilts us, and Number One tilts left, and so do I, and then she overcompensates and flips us all off to the right. I kicked J pretty hard--couln't help it, he fell on top of me--but thought it was Number Two. I'm searching frantically for her, say, "Where is she?!" to J, and he chuckles.

"She's on the boat."

She was the only one who didn't fall off!

So that was quite an adventure. After hiking in the Myrtle Beach State Park in the morning, doing the boat ride, and battling the choppiest surf yet for a little while, we were pretty beat.

And Number Two STILL wanted to go to the pool last night! She's lucky she has such a game Daddy. Lame-o Mommy would have just sat poolside and read (which I did) and made her swim on her own.

I like dunking in the pool and cooling off (or whatever), but I'm not much into swimming in the pool for very long. The exception is the lazy river, which seems to be all the rage now. They have them everywhere we go. It's totally aimless floating, but since you're going somewhere, it feels like a purpose? I don't know. I just like it. And after Number Two got scolded for floating under her innertube, the guy telling her she was going to get her feet tore up, I had an idea. And guess what? The bottom of a lazy river is an AWESOME exfoliator for heel calluses.

Today's our last day, and we're all sad. We'll do the beach one more time (with the accompanying two more loads of laundry) and Number One talked J into taking her to see GI Joe, so I get to take Number Two to see Aliens in the Attic (yay). We also might go get a picture taken with baby tigers and apes. That one's up in the air.

Then it's the long drive back tomorrow. I won't sigh. Saving up all our points for two years (plus borrowing from next year) allowed us to have two vacations this summer, and I know a lot of people don't even get to do one. We're lucky.

Still...I've got doctor's appointments and soccer practices and meetings and a looming deadline waiting for me when I get home, and I'm just not ready to face that yet.

Deja Vacation

Day 1: 13.5 hours of driving instead of the 9 it should be, mainly because of congested traffic. J is a trouper, for sure, for doing most of the driving.

Day 2: Got about an hour and a half at the beach before it started to storm. The beach club that gives us access to the beach had water damage so the lockers, showers, changing rooms, and snack bar are all closed. No one bothered to tell us, even when we called the front desk about using the beach club.

Spent most of the day running all over town trying to find a second bathing suit for Number One (found one, as well as replacements for my broken flip-flops). Did grocery shopping (twice), three loads of laundry and the dishes.

This is vacation?

~~~~~~~
Didn't get a chance to post...

Day 3: Repeat of day 2--just under two hours at the beach, rain started. Didn't storm as badly, but we didn't go out again. Except, oh, wait, to the grocery store. *sigh* We did get to Rioz for dinner--awesome Brazilian steakhouse--and then played mini golf and swam in the pool.

Day 4: Lazy day, letting injuries heal (not me this time!) and taking a break from the beach. Of course, it didn't rain. *sigh* Went to Magiquest, the fastest hour and a half in history, and narrowly defeated Number Two at a duel. Then we went in search of a bookstore and spent lots of money on books! Best part of the vacation so far! LOL

Now the kids are all over me to go pick up Sonic for dinner. We don't have Sonic at home, so it's a treat. A cheap one, luckily, since Rioz cost us two bills. Ouch.

Luckily, the beach is free. Hey, honey, how's your leg...?

Announcement

This post is dedicated to Shannon Stacey.

Seven weeks ago, Shannon posted on her blog about a new publisher with an impressive pedigree. Curious, because Shannon has also posted about new publishers that looked abysmal, I clicked over to check them out. And was impressed. I investigated backgrounds, Googled for more info, and thought, "hey, I wonder if this would be a good place to try Black Widow".

Yous see, BW is my problem child. I wrote it to target a defunct line of romantic adventure books in which the romance was often light or untraditional. And boy, did I go balls out on the untraditional with this one. But they didn't like it.

I sold the book to Inara Press because it didn't have a chance in you-know-where for a home anywhere else, and come on. Inara Press! I was still in full Firefly obsession back then. But Inara succumbed to reality before we even got to editorial.

The great thing about start-up publishers is their time frame. Query to submission to contract offer in 22 days!

I don't have a release date yet because the revisions this book requires are whew let me sit down, but I'm fully in love with the publisher and my editor and will shout the news as I have it. But you can make a mental note now:

Black Widow. Quartet Press. Coming soon.

All in Suzuki Life of Manns

I left with some friends at noonish yesterday to head to NYC, got home at 4:05 this morning, and got up just before noonish today. It was a rockin' 24 hours!

First, huge thanks to Megan for driving into NYC, which is always an experience. We shall never forget her creative curses thrown at other drivers, many of whom also had out-of-state plates but jumped on the "moron city driver" bandwagon with relish.

Second, nearly as huge thanks to my friends. How often can people spend 16 hours together, non-stop, and not only not run out of things to talk about, but never get annoyed with each other or have any kind of tension? You guys rock harder than the bands did!

So. The bands.

The venue, Sullivan Hall, was fine. Standing only, which was annoying but tolerable, especially since we got there at 6:45 or so and there was hardly anyone there. The sound was kind of bad, but we were right up front, so everything sounded mostly okay to us, except when there was feedback.

Ace in Blind was a pretty decent rock band from New Haven, who thanked their friends and family for coming down for the gig. So cute. Sad that they didn't have more people there, but we helped make up for it by buying their CD. I also got their T-shirt for Number One, and told her wearing a shirt for an obscure band makes her look cool. Or she could tell her friends it's a band her mom went to see in NYC, which would make me look cool. But she said that would make her look like a dork. Oh, well.

Next was Andy Suzuki, who played with The Method, I think he said. He had a high, sweet voice, very emotional lyrics, and tons of energy. The band was really interesting, with the typical guitar, bass, keyboard, and drums, but also another guy who did all kinds of eclectic percussion, a backup soloist (his sister!--Mom sold his CDs for him), and the coolest, an electric fiddle. He was good. He dueled with the guitarist and his fingers flew! The instrument sounded even sweeter than Andy did.

Doesn't he look a lot like Joseph Gordon-Levitt?



Next came Life of Riley. I became a Riley fan (love that name, too, have it slated to use in a book :) ) back when Jason Manns first did a tour with them, and they were great on stage. I was disappointed when they had to stop.

Which was a real problem with the whole setup. But I'll get to that.



Finally, we got to Jason. He was accompanied by Jonah, the Life of Riley drummer, and that was a great enhancement. The backup percussion supported Jason's guitar and his incredible voice, and they had nice on-stage chemistry. I grinned every time Jason growled, and my friends looked at me and laughed every. single. time. But damn, it was WAY too short.


Here's the problem. The bill was typical--less experienced bands first, more well-known, experienced, skilled performers last. But the bar had another gig at midnight. So when the first band started nearly half an hour late and ran 45 minutes over, it pushed all the others, so the last one, the one we traveled 8 hours to see, was the shortest. Jason didn't have time to play any of his new stuff and left off many of the favorites (damn, I really want to hear "Journey" live--maybe someday).


Still, it's a minor complaint. We did have time to meet Life of Riley and talk to Jason for a little bit.



Overall, it was well worth the trip, and I'm satisfied for now. I won't have to go to such extremes to go see Jason play again, at least not for a while, though I do expect to see him again sometime. I already feel like a groupie, can't make that complete without the actual hanging around part. :)

Now, to try to recover enough from the trip to survive the rest of the summer...

Extreme Perseverance

I'm blogging today over at Magical Musings. Come check it out! I'm giving away a free book, too, either a paperback copy of my latest, Indulgence II, or an e-book of your choice from my backlist. All comments count, even if it's just "hi!" :)

Things that Are Annoying Me This Week

ETA: I remembered the third thing! Look below!

1. Visible bras with tank tops.

If the tank is too see-through to go without a bra, it's too see-through to wear by itself. If the tank has thin straps, it probably also has a built-in bra, and if that's not sufficient for you, you shouldn't be wearing a tank by itself. Just my opinion. I think visible bra straps are trashy and I don't want to see them.

2. Readers who try to dictate to me.

I'm really sick of e-book readers telling everyone we're dinosaurs and MUST move into the 21st century and change our ways (and paper readers who decry the push for e-books--no one's threatening your reading preferences). Today's society is all about choice, and that's what readers have, too. A choice to read an old-fashioned paper book or an electronic book. The options exist for a reason.

Case in point:
I know a guy who reads about a dozen books a year at an average of $8.00 per book. That's $96 (plus tax) to get the reading experience. So why should he spend $300 in addition to that? He's expressed interest in dedicated e-readers, but it doesn't make sense to him. I told him he can read them on his Blackberry, and he pooh-poohed that immediately. Screen too small, and he doesn't want to be tethered to an outlet when the battery zips down to nothing.

Many people I know who read avidly can't afford an e-reader or just plain don't want to read on a screen. And I also know many people who love the accessibility of their iPhones or Blackberries or Kindles or Sonys and can't imagine going back to paper. That's fine. It's personal.

So all you judgmental people, just mind your own business and leave ours alone. (Note: this diatribe stems from comments at a PW post regarding the B&N announcement of it's e-store.) (Another note: I am aware of the irony of telling people to stop judging when I did that in #1.)

3. I had another thing that was irking me yesterday, but now I can't think of it. I'll come back and edit this post if I do. In the meantime, feel free to jump in and share what's annoying YOU this week! :)

ETA: I remembered the other thing. It's magazines that have a teaser on the cover, but the table of contents don't use any of the words in that teaser, so you don't know which article it is. For example, Harrisburg magazine had "Spice up your summer" and the "Spice" font was reminiscent of Harlequin Spice, so I wanted to see if that's what it was about. The word "spice" was NOWHERE in the table of contents. I decided it was the recipe section, though that was pushing it, as there was only one recipe that had anything remotely spicy. And it took me forever to flip through the magazine. I was at work. I don't have that kinda time, you know? :)

Books to Film

I just finished reading the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse series, curious after watching True Blood how close it came. I liked it enough that I plan to get the second book, because I'm still curious, though not enough to run right out and get it.

I'm not exactly sure why that is. It may be because the show was amazingly close to the tone of the book, overall, as well as to the events. I felt like I'd been watching the show, not reading. Unfortunately, while I really liked Anna Paquin's Sookie and Sam Trammell's Sam, I didn't care for Bill at all, and that carried over to the book. I can't tell if I'd feel any differently if I hadn't watched the show first.

So I can't say I liked one better than the other (book versus movie), which is a rarity.

It's always more straightforward when things go the other way, and I read the book before seeing the movie.

~~~~~~~~SPOILER ALERT FOR HALF-BLOOD PRINCE MOVIE~~~~~~~~

A true Harry Potter fan has to have certain expectations going into a Harry Potter movie:

1. The casting will be mostly great.
2. The atmosphere will be awesome (kudos to cinematography, set dressing, props, costuming, makeup, etc.).
3. The quality of the acting will have improved (for the young ones, anyway--the older ones are mostly awesome, too).
4. The script will suck.

We all understand--intellectually, anyway--the difficulties inherent in condensing these very chock-full books into a 2-and-a-half-hour film. But some things are just incomprehensible to us. As a writer, I get putting your own stamp, your own twist, on an adaptation. But you don't f*** with Harry Potter.

For the most part, Half-Blood Prince is very well done. I found it to be the best of the six movies, overall. I was so pleased with the smooth editing, a huge improvement over the jerking around of Order of the Phoenix. I also--after the initial moment of disapproval--liked the way they incorporated Draco's thread into the film. It couldn't have been handled the way it was in the book, it just wouldn't have worked. And to see his desperation, his intensity, was a treat. Tom Felton did a fabulous job.

There was a ton of humor in this film, too, more than most. Ron and Harry under the influence of their various potions were delightful breaks of normal character. (One fave moment was "and the pincers" with the little hand gestures and clicking.) Through the bulk of the film, I was okay with how they'd "outed" the Harry/Ginny feelings for each other and the Hermione feelings for Ron, all of which were much more obvious than in the book. Since the movie gives us more than one point of view, that was realistic and fun. And it helped solidify Harry and Hermione's sibling-type friendship, which will hold them in good stead for the final movie(s).

But it all kind of fell apart at the end. There were some elements that worked, but they were among others that, for me, didn't work at all, and left me dissatisfied.

1. That kiss. In the book, Ginny gives Harry a hard, blazing look and runs to him, throwing her arms around him, and he kisses her deeply. It's TOTALLY a movie kiss. In the movie, it's gentle, he doesn't know it's coming...and they completely drop the entire thing until the very end, capping it with a tossaway "Ron's okay with it." With what?! There's nothing going on!

So okay, big deal, at least they're together, right? But then...

2. The kiss happens while Ginny is guiding Harry to hide the potions book in the room of requirement. Grrr, because only Harry has been in there, alone, when it's a hiding warehouse, but never mind. And the changing of the reason he's hiding it cuts a lot of pages and it's believable, it fits the movie story, so okay. But she has him close his eyes so he doesn't even know where it is. This shreds any hope I have for the final movie(s). (In the book, Harry marks the book's location with a bust, wig, and tarnished tiara that turns out to be the diadem of Ravenclaw, one of Voldemort's horcruxes. Without that, there's no reason to return to Hogwarts, where the epic final battle takes place.)

And hey, while we're on the topic of horcruxes...

3. They dropped a lot of the Dumbledore/Harry discussions and exposition. Sure, it would be slightly tedious and drag out the movie, but please. Take five minutes to lay out how many horcruxes there are left and what they are likely to be, so Harry's not working completely blind. (On the other hand, nice little touch with the ring and the flash and Dumbledore's dawning expression as he realizes what it means.)

Then we get to the very end. The inciting event that puts Harry on his path to death and Voldemort's defeat. Aaaaannnnndddd...WTF?

4. Why not have Dumbledore freeze Harry under the cloak, as in the book? I found it impossible to suspend disbelief that Harry would stand by like that, or that Draco could disarm Dumbledore without the distraction he had in the book. Snape knowing Harry was there feels wrong, though I don't think that change has a huge impact. I understand why they dropped the battle scene, though I lament the loss of the connection with the other DA members. They don't want to detract from the last movie(s), and it would have been expensive and add length they didn't want to add (though I don't think a three-hour movie would be a problem; it never is!).

BUT!

5. Harry's confrontation with Snape left me wanting, too. Some of it was spot on, like "Fight back, you coward!" and "Don't you call me coward!" But the "Until you learn to keep your mouth closed and your mind shut..." line was highly significant. And I was completely distracted by Hagrid's hut being aflame and Harry not at all concerned that Hagrid might be burning alive. (In the book, Hagrid is outside after the Deatheaters come past, and it's Fang inside, with Hagrid battling.)

Bottom line:

The end result is a strange mix. Every other HP movie, I've had to see multiple times. The first time is to get through the "they changed that...they changed that..." compulsion. The second time is usually a lot better than the first, and I often see them a third time, just to absorb the whole thing or catch details I missed.

This time, I feel more satisfied with the movie as a whole. It engaged me fully, so I wasn't muttering mentally all the way through. Yet I'm unhappy enough that I don't want to see it again and feel even more dissatisfied.

The one thing that hasn't changed, though, is that it made me want to read the books again, despite having just done so a couple of months ago. :)

Taking a Breath

I finally have a moment to do so!

*inhales deep*

Wanna see what I've been doing around the web?

At Supernatural Sisters, I explained why I love the classic episode "Roadkill." (Classic as in "prior to season 4")

At the Gabwagon, I expressed my disappointment at how the RWA annual general meeting proceeded last Thursday.

Coming up, I get to be a guest at the fabulous Magical Musings, talking about how evolution of a career often brings you back to basics. And about how I type with my cat stretched across my wrists. That will be on Thursday, but check out their other great posts in the meantime. I love reading what those smart ladies have to say, though I confess to rarely having comments.

So. Taking a breath? Last week was of the "incredible that I made it through" variety.

Monday
I already posted about this. It was slightly better on Friday. I also have to work a couple of days this week, and I'm feeling more confident. Though the file I couldn't find was apparently where it was supposed to be, which made me feel dumb.

Tuesday
Harry Potter was excellent. Mostly. I'll do another post later that has spoilers, but don't want to bury them here. I think it was the most well done of all the movies, and so much better than the last one as far as cohesiveness and narrative flow. Most of the things they changed, I understood and thought they did well. A few didn't make sense why they changed them, and two big things bothered me a lot and made me afraid for the last movie(s). But, as I said, more later.

Wednesday
Tuesday, of course, ran into Wednesday. When teenagers go to sleep at 4:30 a.m. (ish), they don't really want to get up in the morning. I was aiming for home at noon, but got them all delivered by 1:00. Then I barely had time to get some work done before I drove to DC with Number One, who got to go to her first booksigning ever and meet authors who write the stuff she reads, not just people who are her mother's friends first, authors second. We had a nice dinner and some great conversation, and got home about 10:00 p.m.

Thursday
Up at 6 to drive back to DC with Misty Simon and Vicki Smith. It was a pretty smooth ride into DC, despite being rush hour (and just after) and we got to the hotel in plenty of time for the main meeting, which was half fiasco (see Gabwagon post). The rest of the day was awesome, though. I got to see a bunch of people (though not as many as I would have seen if I'd been attending the actual conference, which makes me sad, but maybe next year I can make it work!) and spend quality time with Agent Awesome. Cathy McDavid and Libby ICanNeverRememberHerLastName had their second annual wine party, which was tons of fun. I didn't want to leave, but finally forced myself to. We got home about 2:45 a.m.

Friday
More freelance work in a.m., outside work in p.m., birthday cake shopping that failed, birthday dinner that did not.

Saturday
Sleeping IN. More freelance work. Soccer game beach party.

Sunday
Two people ended up dropping by, one foreseen, one a pleasant surprise. I had a very nice visit, but spent so much time trying to get Number One's birthday present to work right that the freelance work delayed grocery shopping, which I now I have to do tonight while Number Two is at soccer practice. But the good thing is that, despite some running around and the tightness of scheduling that working outside causes, this week should be MUCH more breathable than last. :)

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Funny Story of the Week:

I took my husband's car to DC, because it's a hybrid and bigger than mine, so more comfortable for passengers. The speedometer is lined up differently than mine is--that's my only explanation, unless it's flat-out wrong, because I had it on cruise and I never set it that high. Then there's the fluctuating speed limit on route 15. Not excuses--I deserved to be pulled over. Just reasons.

So it's 1:30 in the morning, three women in a car, all dressed up. He asks where we're coming from, I say DC. Asks if I'd had anything to drink. I said about "this much" wine, showing a couple of inches, a few hours before. It was actually that much twice, but in a small plastic cup--really less than a full glass overall, and I finished the last bit about...I don't know, 10:30? But of course he wouldn't take my word (and rightfully so) so guess what?

I got to do my first ever field sobriety test and Breathalyzer^TM! Of course, I passed with flying colors. And get this--he gave me a warning for the speeding. That has NEVER happened to me before in my life.

Misty said it was the cleavage shirt.

We Now Welcome You to the Survival Portion of Our Summer

My former boss called me on Friday in a panic. She needed me to fill in while a former colleague was on leave. I worked all day yesterday, and...yeah. After three years, I don't remember anything. Especially stuff I never did. It was quite a challenge. Looking forward to Friday. Right.

I currently have five animated teenagers playing Wii while they wait to leave for the midnight showing of Harry Potter. We found out that the theater had sold out theaters 1 through 9 by 6 this evening. That line will be fun. Right.

Tomorrow I have to get 5 kids to different locations, four of them after they were up past 3:00 a.m. Then I have to try to finish a formatting job before I drive to DC, mainly because I'll be in DC all day Thursday, too, and much of the night. Which will be awesome while I'm there, I'm not complaining, but oy.

I'm just hangin' on, taking everything one minute at a time. I don't know how the heck other people manage even busier schedules. I guess they just do it.

Right.

Status Report

I am wayyy behind. I spent much of today dealing with Verizon's nationwide meltdown, which entailed going to the library to check e-mail and retrieve a file I needed for a client for a new, rush job. The meltdown seems to have been averted, and everything is now accessible to me from home.

But I didn't get any new writing done on Zoe yesterday, and today looks bad, too.

I did the preliminary edit and most of the formatting for book 1, just waiting for some details from that client. Book 2 is in the works. Judging contest entries--well, since today's Wednesday, I should have three done. I have one. Deadline is weeks away though, so that's okay.

But lookee!

*Post to Gabwagon and Supernatural Sisters blogs

*Do short writeups for book sequels

I actually did something completely enough to cross it off!

Oh, and in other good news, a really great guy was helping me with the PDF thing and magically, it was fixed. I suspect the Verizon problem was the culprit, their glitches interfering with my PDFServlet thingy. Yes, I'm a techie, can't you tell? The new DVR receiver arrived this morning, so I need to get that installed and set up sometime. But not now. Now, back to rush job for Cool Client!

*rushes off*

Incompetence Drives Me Insane

Last night, our DVR receiver died.

At first, it wasn't dead, it was only sick. The picture cut in and out, and it kept flashing messages about trying to connect to the satellite. Eventually, resetting it got me locked into nothing while it failed to download satellite info. So I bit the bullet and called DirecTV. He had me switch the satellite 1 and 2 cables and hit reset.

THEN it died.

"Oh, gee, I'm sorry, our only option now is to send you a replacement receiver." He totally ignored me all three times I said this was the third receiver in less than a year, and why did they keep sending us crap?

Yeah, I know, I'd switch to Verizon FiOS in an instant, but DirecTV holds us hostage with their exclusive contract with the NFL. I can't live without the NFL Sunday Ticket. Well, I can, but I don't have to, so I refuse to. That's what keeps my husband married to me, you know. :)

So that's our choice, which means I have to deal with crap and idiots. Hey, at least it happened in the summer. If it had happened during the regular season, and I'd lost the entire season of Supernatural? You'd have heard the roar of fury, no matter where on the planet you are.

But that's not all. The frustration continues. Today I got an e-mail that my mortgage statement was ready for viewing. For the third month in a row, I can't open it. I get a blank screen, no matter what browser I'm using. I double checked, and Adobe Reader is completely up to date. I can open every other PDF I try, from any other site I've been on. I can open all statements prior to May. But May, June, and July, I can't open. Last month I sent an e-mail, and got what was probably an automated response that they were mailing copies and for future convenience, I could go to the website to access my statements from my account...

So today I called them. The CSR tells me there's no problem from their end. Asks me if I consulted a computer professional. What the ? I asked for technical support and got an "I'm sorry, ma'am."

There's no upside to this one.

I'm not paying a computer professional because of this random, specific glitch. It would be different if I was having a problem with all PDFs, or even just random, specific PDFs from other sites. But it's just this one.

I supposed I'll have to go spend time I don't have looking for smart, competent people on some forums somewhere that might have a solution. God forbid the mortgage company should HIRE SOME OF THEM.

Alibi Junior High

I've been reading a lot of YA fiction lately, because there's so much good stuff out there. But so much of it is female-centric. It's a problem I only sympathize with from the outside, because I have daughters and that limits my perspective. But as a professional, I'm aware that YA and middle grade fiction targeting boys, or even about boys (because hey, girls don't mind reading about boys!) is rarer than it should be.

I haven't read Alibi Junior High yet, but I just added it to my Wish List. Spies, adventure, normal life, even a little (crush-level) romance! Sounds excellent!

Summer Swampage

I am so swamped.

I'm not quite sure how it happened. Holiday weekends can be deceiving, I guess. They're undemanding, family-oriented, relaxing, etc. Then Monday comes, and blammo.

What I have to do this week:

*Finish Zoe (about 10k or so left)

*Edit two books for clients

*Format both books

*Judge contest entries

*Post to Gabwagon and Supernatural Sisters blogs

*Do short writeups for book sequels

*Prepare for chapter meeting on Saturday

That's just the work stuff. I have to squeeze it in between Number Two's percussion lessons and soccer training, tomorrow's City Islanders game in Maryland against DC United, and all the regular family/pet/household stuff that never goes away.

Next week gets even crazier, if you can believe it. So I'm keeping this short, because even though I've been working diligently for hours, I still have tons to do.

Wish me luck!

Procrastinating

The kids are at the pool. I have an hour before I go get them. I should be writing.

But I'm procrastinating because nearly everything I wrote yesterday must go. Thousands of words. I don't have to cut that much very often, but it's so painful when I do. Not because I want to keep the words. I knew they were wrong as I wrote them, but my brain wouldn't go in the right direction. No, it's painful because I always keep track of word count, I always have a self-imposed deadline or goal, and setbacks SUCK. HARD.

Alas, it must be done. I'm going to force myself to stop here, before I start to ramble, and go redirect Grant and Zoe to the proper location and sequence of events.

Wish me luck.

Harper's Island, Etc.

I am very sad that this show did so poorly. Is it one of the best on TV? Hell, no. But it's been really interesting to extend the typical old horror movie format. We actually come to care for the characters before they get killed. We have people we really want to root for, and complex relationships instead of just random screaming and stuff.

I was going to comment on Sandy's excellent write-ups at Sci Fi Chicks, but I'm a couple of weeks late and my comments really exceed comment level. But go read them, she's got some excellent insight and theorizing.

The best example of the characterization on this show is Cal and Chloe. So many of us were rooting for them to die quickly. But Cal turned out to be not a silly, pathetic man desperate for the supermodel type toying his affections. He was brave, and honorable, and confident in himself despite the huge contrast between himself and Henry's macho friends. And Chloe won me over when she fought for her engagement ring. She was a weak person in her fear, but sympathetic and believable, and she found tons of inner strength in the end.

Henry and Abby are supposed to be the central focus of the show, but Cal and Chloe's deaths were harder to take than anyone else's. Cal's determination to save her, even when his chances were infinitesimal, and Chloe's four simple words--"You can't have me" when she let go and fell to her death on her own terms (kind of). Incredibly poignant, and how the heck are they going to top it?

There's been other good stuff, too. I admired Jim Beaver more than ever because I think he, himself, is awesome, and I adore Bobby. But no matter how hard I tried, I really didn't like the sheriff. I don't think I was supposed to, but it was so subtle, and then such a contrast to his final scene, when he poured so much love and emotion into his begging to Abby.

Now they've made us suspicious of Jimmy. I'm not buying it. They made us suspicious of JD with trumped-up evidence, then of the sheriff with blatant clues. So Jimmy was in jail once, and the sheriff had a file on him. Of course he did! He didn't like the guy, and Jimmy loved his daughter. Could have been a reason for her to come back, something her father definitely didn't want. He wanted her healthy and whole and away from the horror he'd lived, more than once, on that island.

As Sandy pointed out, over there on SciFi Chicks, we're in the difficult final hours, where we care more about nearly everyone, and deaths have an impact on us. If HI follows horror movie tradition, only two people will be left. So let's see who we have:

1. Madison. They're not going to kill the kid, though then it would defy tradition, so probably three will survive.

2. Shea. I don't mind if she dies, but then Madison would be alone, and that would suck.

3. Danny. He can die. Probably will.

4. Sully. Probably second only to Cal and Chloe in the character arc. He was a jerk trying to take another guy's girl. Then he let her go, befriended the guy, and saved his life. Unevenly, apparently, but then, that didn't matter much in the end. I don't want him to die. He probably will, too.

5. Jimmy. I was mad when he was apparently killed. Interesting shift, the way he was spared. I like him enough to keep me from expecting Henry and Abby from getting together. Because that seems the way things should go, doesn't it? There's speculation that he's Wakefield's child, but that would make him Abby's brother, because her mother was the Wakefield kid's mother, too, and that's just icky. Though they DID go to great pains to show us how they never had sex, and why.

6. Trish. She's been interesting. I keep going back and forth between not liking her and liking her. She's not a pure stereotype, and I've always been glad she didn't display animosity or jealousy toward Abby and Henry's protectiveness toward her. She's gonna die.

7. Henry. He's been consistent and solid, the stable centerpiece for Abby's whirling morass of emotion. I'm on the fence about him. I can see him going either way, but if he dies, Jimmy survives, or vice versa. Unless...

8. Abby is the heroine, the main protagonist, the one with the baggage and the relationship to the bad guy. So she's going to survive, and she's probably going to be the one to kill Wakefield. The only question is under what circumstances? Will she and Jimmy and Henry and Trish (and Madison, to be adopted and in therapy the rest of her life) all make it? Happy ending, hope for the future? Or will it just be Abby, alone and stranded on an island among all the dead?

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I usually spend the summer watching a TV show on DVD, something with multiple seasons and stuff. This summer, it's not happening. I did True Blood and I have Entourage, but only one season of each (there is only one season of TB, and Entourage is released so far apart, I've been watching as it goes) and they aren't real seasons.

This summer, that's okay, because there's a lot I'm interested in checking out. Mostly on cable networks, but some on the big ones. Merlin and The Philanthropist I have started recording but haven't watched yet. Virtuality, a failed pilot, is sitting on the DVR, too.

Leverage and Eureka return this month. Warehouse 13 interests me. And then there's Royal Pains. I first fell for Mark Feuerstein on Caroline in the City wayyy too long ago to think about. Then I liked him in Good Morning Miami. I haven't watched everything he does, but the premise and his starring role intrigued me enough to check it out. And I happened to have four eps piled up (vacation is to blame!) so I watched three last night. And I really like it! The setting is gorgeous, of course, and his character is too good a guy to dismiss. I'm not too sure about Jill yet. She's okay acting-wise, but a bit too close to the throwaway rich beauties surrounding them, looks-wise. The other secondary characters are awesome, especially Tucker. This one's a definite winner for me!

The other show I'm recording, I don't want to watch: MTV's 16 and Pregnant. I just feel a parental responsibility to watch with my 14-year-old. I'm not going to let the fact that she spent all day yesterday working out her high school schedule (all four years!) to best benefit her into the future (subject to change) lure me into complacency. It would be all too easy. But smart, mature, forward-thinking girls, even ones who still avoid boys-as-boys, still fall prey to hormones and emotion. I'm not above scare tactics to help prevent mistakes. So we'll see what we think of that show once I force myself to force her to sit down and watch. :)

What TV are you into this summer?