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I’ve finally reached the age where I have completely forgotten about today being my birthday. My mom sent me a birthday card earlier this week, which should’ve been my first clue. Sadly, it kept slipping my mind because I’ve been having a blast with my YA paranormal and thinking about Baby Girl. I received a second clue in the mail from the lovely folks at Samhain, which was totally unexpected. Still, my brain pretty much farted out a bowel. So, it was nice to wake up this morning and see a bunch of happy-birthday wishes in my inbox.
Anyway, I’ll be spending my day here and looking forward to it. With a little luck, maybe I’ll find a nice–cheap–crib or highchair. Or a travel system or a car seat. Or just some cute clothes. Or… Okay, I promise I won’t get carried away. See how easy it is for me to forget that it’s my birthday. 
This Saturday, I’ll be at the Heart of Carolina presenting Pitch Practice for Nationals with the fabulous Jenna Black. I can’t wait. 
I love helping people with their pitches. I can tell by the first few lines whether a pitch is going to interest me or not and it has nothing to do with whether I read in your genre or not. I’m planning to have a blast with this in terms of what NOT to do when you’re pitching. 
If you’ve been keeping track, last December I had decided not to renew my RWA membership. I had lost interest and didn’t see the point in sticking around. Not to mention, my planned pregnancy took precedence over everything else in life, including my writing luxuries.
By October 2008, the programming staff had already had me on the roster for this year. I don’t know what possessed them to think of me as a good pitch person because I hadn’t requested it. Nonetheless, I’m flattered they had chosen me to present. The best thing about that is I get paid. Did you hear that? I get PAID! And it just so happens that it’ll cover my RWA renewalfees quite nicely. Oh, and I get to see a bunch of my writerly friends again whom I miss very much. Woohoooooo!
With the cash (or check), I’ve decided to renew my membership. However, there will be some changes. For starters, I’m not rejoining any other chapters. I’m letting those things sink because I’m tired of swimming with them. Not to mention 75% of the posts are either either about someone’s promo. Uh, what happened to conversations about writing? Either way, by putting them at arm’s length, I’ll be saving myself an additional $100 and a hell of a lot of drama.
So that’s one of the most recent decisions I’ve made regarding my writing career. Have you made any recent changes or decisions with yours?
I don’t know about you guys, but I have a very good reason for wanting to be a better person in all that I do. Dr. King is smiling down on all of us right now, seeing one color and that’s that color of Hope.
Though I have a feeling President Obama won’t be able to do everything he promised, I have no doubt that he’s going to do his damnedest to try. That’s good enough for me.
I’m also thankful to be sitting home on my couch and watching the inauguration on TV. It beats being there in person where everyone on center stage looks like a speck of shivering dust. And since NC has declared a State of Emergency with the 3+ inches of snow (I kid you not), I guess that means I’ll be baking cookies today.
By the way. Did anyone notice Bush strutting down the hall? That man has a bottle of Jack Daniels and a Stogy waiting for him when he gets home. 
One of my favorite lines during Mr. Obama’s speech…
Know that your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy.
This is true for everyone regardless of who you are, where you came from, or what you believe.
Here’s another…
This is the meaning of our liberty and our creed — why men and women and children of every race and every faith can join in celebration across this magnificent Mall, and why a man whose father less than 60 years ago might not have been served at a local restaurant can now stand before you to take a most sacred oath.
Wow.
By the way. If you missed the inauguration and/or would like a replay, hit up Kathy Calarco’s blow-by-blow commentary. It’s hiliarious!
It’s been about four years since my last visit to upstate NY because…well…other than family, there’s not there. This weekend, I had to make an emergency trip back home, and so far, it’s been…interesting. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to see my family again, but for some strange reason, my characterization radar has clicked on and it’s running at ninety percent, clinging to every word and mannerism my family has to offer, especially my nieces and nephew. Usually, it only runs at about forty percent because I’ve been around my usual NC haunts for so long that I tend to phase them out.
So far, I’ve spent a good part of the time hanging out with my nieces who are fifteen and fourteen and their friends who are around the same age. Just watching watching them interact is the most amazing thing ever. Their entire world revolves around school, and as you can guess, the gossip is rampant. Still, I like listening (and being included in, believe it or not!) because of the intrigue and infectious excitement.
I found out Jordan/Jamie (whatever his name was) wants to take my younger niece, Niece 2, to a dance, but she already knows another boy is planning to ask her. Heck, I wish my teenage years were this interesting. I swear it’s right out of some highschool TV show. Then, there was a story about the class clown who has part of his ear missing and acts a little off in the head. I also learned about the highschool “slut” who likes revolving-door dating. I pray she’s not sleeping with these guys seeing as she turns out a different guy every two days. Then, there was the story about Niece 1 snapping at some girl for running into her. Her words were, “Why don’t you watch where you’re going?! Are you blind or…ohmygod! I am sooooooooo sorry.” Poor Niece. She didn’t know the girl was really blind until she got a good look at her.
My nephew, on the other hand, no drama. Then again he’s ten and mellow just like his father, my brother. There’s a good chance he won’t have any drama for a while. He busied himself making paper planes and showing me his four-wheeler recharging in the garage.
You know the first thing that came to my mind about all this? Writing a YA novel centered around their lives. That’s like repellant to me. Although, strange enough, I think I understand the appeal of writing YA now. Heck, I’m a freaking adult and even I was drawn into their stories. I said to myself that I’d never write one because I don’t read them. Harry Potter and Scott Westerfield were about as YA as I got. Nonetheless, I’m thinking about giving a crack at it just to see if I can do it.
The weird thing is that people always say read a lot in the genre that you write. While that may be true, living with it doesn’t hurt either. IMHO, it’s your best source of information when it comes to characterization. The rest of the story is pretty much like any story because you’re dealing with plotting, pacing, etc. And seeing as my nieces wanted to read my book and I replied with an oh-heck-no, I just might have to chance writing something they can read. After all, I had written a couple of my bi-racial characters with my nieces and nephew in mind. Too bad, they won’t be able to read about any of them until they’re eighteen. Bummer. 
When I think about me taking on this particular task, I cringe. I never would’ve thought I’d write a YA and never wanted to, really. Then again, I never thought I’d write a romance either. Look how that turned out. But for my nieces and my nephew, I’ll do just about anything because I love them to pieces. Even if that means taking a chance with writing a YA.
Have you went against your grain and chance writing something you said you’d never do? Or has something in your life ever made you say, “I have to to write that”?
Someone pinch me, because I’m dreaming.
As I write this, I’m watching McCain give what sounds like a concession speech. For once in that man’s campaign, I think this was the best freakin’ speech he had ever given. Not because Obama won, but because I honestly hear the sincerity in his voice. It’s like a regret that he ran his campaign the way he did. I could easily be wrong or in denial. To Senator McCain, I offer this: “Thanks for showing me the guy who I liked so long ago and not the one I thought was smoking crack between speeches.”
As for President Obama…mmmm mmmm mmmm. How sweet it is.
Every time I thought about you becoming the next President of the United States, I couldn’t help think of the stories my grandmother passed down to us kids about the humiliation she suffered at the hands of the Jim Crow Laws. Many times, she had to shut her mouth as a little girl or run from the racist bastards who threatened to do horrible things to her because of the color of her skin. It hurts me to hear those stories, but I know I have to. I want to know where my grandmother came from. I want to understand her struggles. Why? Because it makes me appreciate the life I have now even more. I can’t tell you how much your win means to my grandmother, considering where she came from. Though we live hundreds of miles apart, I wouldn’t be surprised if she woke up with tears in her eyes and a huge smile on her face. This is an election I never thought I’d live to see, so I can’t imagine what she’s thinking.
Let’s face it folks. There’s no way on earth anyone can deny this is the most historic presidental race ever. But what makes this so amazing is it took black people, white people, Hispanic people, old people, young people. PEOPLE. It took EVERYONE to see this historic day. Not just one race. It took a United States of America to do what we did. At this rate, we can achieve anything.
President Obama, I congratulate you. You have rewritten history and I’ve got my fingers crossed the next four years will be better than the last ones. While I don’t expect you to do everything you promised, the fact that you’re going to fight tooth and nail to make it happen is good enough for me. You’ve got a tough economic year ahead of you because someone just gave you a jacked up Yugo that you have to remodel into a sparkling BMW. But you don’t need me to tell you that. You’ve been listening to it for months now. Just do ALL of us proud. Treat us Main Street folks right.
I can’t wait to see pictures of your beautiful daughters running through the yard of the White House and the lovely First Lady at your side. That’s when I’ll know this is real.
This is history, baby!! Hot damn! I can’t believe I’m a part of it. I can’t believe I participated in it. You bet my children will know not only about my grandmother’s struggles, but they’ll know about this amazing time in my history, too. 
Okay, I think I need to end this now. There are so many tears of joy in my eyes that I can hardly read what I’m writing anymore.
Thoughts?
*UPDATE* In case you’re wondering, as it stands, Obama is ahead here in North Carolina by 12,000 votes. My guess as to why it’s not being called yet is because of the provisional and absentee ballots. Keep in mind NC hasn’t gone Democrat since Carter. Believe me when I say every vote counts.
And thank goodness for that. Look, I know you’re probably sick to death of these voting advertisements, but I have to throw my two cents in, too. However, I’d like to do it a different way.
If you voted, then give yourself a shout-out in the comments section. If you didn’t, then that’s a vote, too. I don’t care if you voted Democrat, Republican, or picked the guy you didn’t know was running on your state’s ballot–Bob Barr in NC. Let me hear you scream “Yes, I voted (or not) and I’m damn proud of it!”
This message is brought to you by the person who’s hoping her political party has more sanity than “that other other one”.
***UPDATE*** Okay, I know what I said, I wouldn’t watch the results, but I caught a glimpse while channel surfing. YAYYYYY for the Senate race in North Carolina!! The fruitcake, slanderous Dole is out.
I’ll be spending my most favorite holiday on the couch with popcorn and some of the scary movies from my vast collection. Don’t ask me how many movies. I stopped counting at three hundred about four years ago. There’s take-out pizza somewhere in that plans. Heck, it’s pay day around my house. Why not? And maybe with a little luck ,I’ll finally finish reading Jennifer Armintrout’s Ashes to Ashes. Nothing against the book itself because it’s one of the best freakin’ vampire series I’ve read in a long time. It’s just that I haven’t found time to finish.
What are you reading this scary, holiday season?
Have a Happy Halloween!
I needed to get in my Halloween creep-fest for the day, so I’m over on Shape Shifter Romance talking about all things gothic and what makes that genre tick for me. Pop on over and join the fun.
A huge shout-out to early voting. After being laid up by surgery last week and working late this week, I FINALLY got a chance to early vote today. The deed is done, and boy do I feel good about it.
But that’s not what this blog is about. I got home on time to see Oprah endorse the Kindle and she’s offering $50 off from her website to anyone who buys the e-reader in the next seven days. I thought, “Oh. Okay.”
If you don’t know what the Kindle is, then go hereto find out. At $359, you can download many of your favorite books and lighten the load on your sagging TBR shelf by more than 200 titles. Not only has NY bought into it, but so have many epubs. Anyone who hasn’t, you can bet it’s on their To-Do list. Even my book, Unstable Environment became available on the Kindle about a month ago. A huge shout-out to Parker Publishingfor offering ebooks in addition to print, by the way. Most of the Kindle-ized ebooks bought through Amazon cost $9.99 or less to download and they’re always available to you, even if you break or lose your device. You can go back to Amazon and download them again.
But here’s the problem: $359. AND, the books are $9.99 or less. The good news is that the hardcover books are supposed to be $9.99, although I haven’t researched that to see if it was true or not. Still, that’s pretty damn steep for an ebook. And I’m not just picking on Kindle either. I’m picking on Sony, Bookeen, Fujitsu, and others who design ebook reader. I think, the last time I checked, the cheapest e-reader out there is $199.
Even though my books are in ebooks format, I don’t own an ereader for them. I’ve thought about buying one, but everytime I think of how much they cost, I see each of those dollars in paperback books. Do you know how many freakin’ books I can buy for $199?
I don’t care how much of an investment it is, I’ll wait until they’re destruction proof. Do you know how many books I’ve dropped or thrown across the room? To my horrified grief, I’ve even dropped a few in the toilet. Can you imagine what it would feel like to drop hundreds of dollars in the blue waters of the porcelain underworld? I’d have a reason to be sick all right. I’ve also dropped books down stairs, left them places never to be see again, and loaned them out. None of that is feasible with a reading device. I don’t care how much money you put in them.
My monetary challenges–stinginess–won’t keep me from reading ebooks. I like them a lot. Ebooks especially come in handy when I’m sitting in front of my computer with writer’s block in full force. That’s when I get most of my ereading done, and my writer’s block is usually lifted. I’m a huge fan of letting students from grade school through graduate school carry all of their books on ereaders because those suckers can get heavy. Unfortunately, I’m not only waiting for an ebook reader that will read ebooks in any format, but I’m also waiting for it to be less than $50. Until that happens, I’ll keep reading them on my laptop. That also means I’ll be reading less ebooks, too.
What are your thoughts on ereaders and ebooks? Are you waiting to buy one or are you a cheapskate like me?
I love love love Halloween. I’ve been so busy this month that I’ve hardly had a second to reflect. That changed when I walked through Wal-mart and saw the Halloween was cheap and plentiful. While I’ll probably get a handful of trick-o-treaters at most, I LOVE handing out candy and checking out the costumes. All I can say is these kids had better be thankful I don’t have plenty of money and time on my hands. I’d turn my house into a haunted house and and scare the hell-oween out of them.
However, as much as I love my scary stuff, I have limits when it comes to ghosts. Yes, I’d take on a vampire or a werewolf any day over a ghost. My family has had too many ghostly encounters over the years and the stories to go with them. For the longest time, I wondered if we’re a magnet. I don’t think I am and I’m okay with that. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for my older brother.
When I was about five years old, a group of adults and us kids we were walking down a dirt road in south Georgia after having visited my grand uncle’s grave. He was buried the day before and we wanted to visit his gravesight to for one last goodbye.
On our way back down the LONG (freakin’ long to me because my legs were shorter than my mother’s forearms), we noticed my brother had stopped a few feet ahead of us. He turned and threw a rock into a bush (I think) before something in the distance caught his eye. He stared past our group, and then started smiling and waving like the friendly little snot that he was. Of course, the adults thought he was smoking crack because they couldn’t figure out who he was waving at. There wasn’t anyone in the cemetery except us. Now, mind you, this was in the middle of the afternoon, so there weren’t any shadows.
My brother replied, “I’m just waving goodbye to Uncle Dean. He’s standing right there next to that dog.”
I can’t tell you how many adults turned heads. Their eyes were bulging out of the sockets and every voice choked on silence. Next thing I knew, my little legs were off the ground and struggling to keep up with my mother’s long strides. Next thing I knew, she scooped me off the ground and started running down the road with the rest of the adults.
Now here’s the really spooky part. When the other family members questioned my brother about the guy he saw, Big Brother described him right down to the overalls, red shirt, and thick boots. There was even a nice shine to his bald head. A few days later, my other grand aunt found an old photo in a shoebox. Uncle Dean was exactly how my brother described him right down to the dog that was standing next to him. Mind you we had only met him once and he wasn’t wearing overalls. There was no way my brother could’ve gotten hold of that picture, so how he knew it was Uncle Dean, we couldn’t say. In fact, I think nobody wanted to speculate after that. We just accepted it and moved on with life.
So the moral of this story is, if my brother is seeing dead people, he’s not saying. I don’t blame him.
Do you believe in ghosts? Have you ever seen one? If no, then what do you think you’d do if you had? I know my answer. My behind is going in the opposite direction and it’s every man for himself.
