New Moon

Okay, so my husband says I've joined the cult of Twilight. After his company Christmas party Saturday night I talked him into going with me to see New Moon since it was something I wanted for Christmas.

This was my fourth time seeing New Moon and I admit fully to the addiction that is Twilight for me. However, I refuse to call it a cult. It's a compelling storyline that draws you in and makes you feel like part of that world.

My husband, Jim, has to put up with other "Twilighters" at work as well as the two of us at home (myself and our 14yo, Scarlett). He even said a couple of the women at work have Twilight posters in their offices. I don't have any posters, although Scarlett does have a couple. She is disappointed that she can't find a poster of Jasper since that's her favorite Cullen. Personally, I will stay poster free until someone makes a poster of Carlisle. :-) Neither of us are Edward fanatics although I admit he's cute.

The music of the moment is "All Star" by Smashmouth. I love Smashmouth and their songs from the Shrek soundtrack. I particularly love this song as it is upbeat and has a positive motivational message in it.

Well, Jim just threatened to watch Stargate Universe without me so I need to stop blogging immediately!!!

Goals for 2010

I can't believe Christmas will be here in just a few weeks. This whole year has just flown by, and it's made my head spin how fast it's gone. I had hoped to end off the year by finishing The Council, but sadly, there's no way it's going to get done in that time frame. Things have been so crazy here at my house and concentrating on writing has been too hard over the past two months. I spend so much time at doctor's offices and the hospital that's it is crazy.

So, my goal for this year has not happened, but I plan to set goals for 2010 and reach them. Of course, that's assuming that I have no emergency situations come up next year. I already know Scarlett will be having sinus surgery sometime soon, or at least I'm 90% sure she will be having surgery. We find out for sure on December 10th.

I'm working on setting my goals/New Year's resolutions for 2010 already. I want to think through my goals so that they are reasonable to achieve. Of course, like most people, I want to get healthier and in better shape. This has been a rough year for me and the side effects of the meds I'm on have not been pleasant, but I need to work hard to overcome them. On the writing front, I think I'm going to set the goal of finishing The Council and Train Wrecks. I also hope to be able to achieve drafts of Jimmy Jameson and Mr. Van Pyre, Science Teacher and Blame It On the Samba. If the year goes really well, I would love to have some work done on the third Elyssia Masters book too, at least a rough outline of the story.

I think once I get back into the groove, I could knock out the remainder of The Council in a month or so. Then comes the editing and rewriting to get it perfect, but while my editing friend does the review and marks the mistakes that need to be corrected, I can be working on Train Wrecks.

So that's the plan for 2010 as of right now. That could change as I find out any additional things that I can expect to come up during the year, but right now it looks like we're just dealing with the surgery for Scarlett, and that's simple.

The music of the moment is from my WMP "Mel's Mix" playlist and the song is "Sugar" by Flo Rida. I love pop and hip-hop music that you can dance to. I enjoy working out to music like this and take mix CD's of this kind of stuff to the gym with me. Now I just need to get motivated to make it up to the gym on a regular basis and get myself whipped back into a shape other than round. :-)

E-books and Lit (the band)

Today's big excitement was taking the kids to get their H1N1 flu vaccine. Tiana was all freaked out worried about getting a shot only to find out she was allowed to get the nasal spray! She screamed and cried and wouldn't get ready to go because she didn't want a shot and got up there to find she didn't have to anyway. That's kids for you.

The big controversy in the publishing world right now is e-books. Nathan Bransford admits to being addicted to his Kindle, loves e-books, and often talks about them on his blog. Today's post asks the question: Will you ever buy mostly e-books? I had to answer that you would have to pry my print books out of my cold dead hands and found I was on par with a split majority between being hooked on print books (p-books) and those willing to consider welcoming in the new age of e-books and electronic reading devices.

I have no problem with technology or those willing to read books in electronic formats, but I personally believe I will never see the day that I would prefer to curl up in bed with a cold hard piece of electronics rather than the warm inviting pages of a good printed book. I also wonder how would authors do book signings if the book is an e-book? How would a book become a classic collector's item in the future if the book is an e-book easily shared among the masses? I believe we lose something of our culture if we go to strictly an e-book society. I just hope it isn't coming to that in the near future!

That's my two cents worth anyway. What do you think of e-books?

The music of the moment today is on my Windows Media Player "Mel's Fun Music" playlist and is the song "My Own Worst Enemy" by Lit. This is one of those "one hit wonder" groups, but I love this song and always find myself singing along whenever it comes on the radio! I can't help it. It's a fun song to sing to and more than once have I found Scarlett and me singing our hearts out together to this song. Now that's mother/daughter bonding. :-)

NaNoWriMo and Tidbit Tuesday

For anyone who actually follows my blog and knew I intended to participate in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) I just thought I would fess up that I didn't end up getting even to 2000 words. Now, I'm not saying that the novel I proposed writing won't ever be written by me, but the truth is that between Tiana's surgery, other doctor's appointments for everyone else in the house who got sick, and then Thanksgiving break with the kids home, there was just no way I was going to get my head into churning out 50K words in 30 days.

Over on Pimp My Novel, I was reading his post for today and the lamenting that he may have been inappropriate to diss the NaNo. What I liked best was the comments section where a couple of writers talked about doing solo NaNos where they choose their own thirty day period to knock out a novel. They called it a SoNoWriMo. That sounds more like what would work out for me. The muse was nowhere to be found in November for me. Anything I wrote would have been garbage anyway since my head wasn't into it like it needs to be. I would have had to completely rewritten the whole thing in the editing process.

So that's that. No NaNo for me this year. Maybe next time.

The music of the moment is Harry Connick Jr. I love his voice and think he's pretty cute to look at too. This is off of his "Your Songs" album that I just borrowed from the library. I enjoy the old time sound of the music he does. He has a classic sound reminiscent of Sinatra. The current song is "Besame Mucho (Kiss Me Much)" I think it would be perfect for the book I have planned Blame It On the Samba. The song "The Way You Look Tonight" just came on! That is one of my all-time favorite songs. I love Harry Connick Jr's version and Tony Bennett's too.

Now for the Tidbit Tuesday. Wow, it's been a long time seemingly since the last one I did. This is just a snippet from The Council. Of course, as I said yesterday, The Council is up for some major rewrites. However, I don't think this is part of what will be rewritten and edited to death. This is at the beginning of the book and is a scene set in the kitchen at Elyssia's house between Elyssia and Evander.

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As had become completely the norm in my house, Evander was sitting at the breakfast nook table drinking coffee and talking with my dad when I entered the kitchen. Ever since I recognized that we were linked as soul mates and the ordeal with Jackson’s father, Liam, was over, Evander had been at the breakfast table any morning my parents didn’t leave early for work. He had become a staple part of life in my own household and my parents could not have been happier.

Mom had just finished baking muffins for breakfast and was setting them out on the table. The warm and sweet scent was heavenly in the kitchen. I poured myself a cup of coffee, added some sweetener, and sat down at the table, grabbing a muffin right away. I loved my mom’s homemade muffins best when they were still warm. Evander leaned over to kiss me on the cheek. “How did you sleep last night, my dear? Your mother mentioned you were having a hard time waking up this morning,” he asked politely.

I scowled at my mother, hating it when she did things like telling Evander every little thing about my behavior before I ever even had a chance to talk to him. “Not more than usual. You know I’m just not a morning person like some people, Evander.”

He reached over and gently stroked my cheek, reaching back and playing with my ponytail as he often did. “That’s okay, love. I didn’t say you had to get up easily or make any judgment on you. I was just asking you if you slept all right, that’s all.”