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Archive for November, 2007

Research Bonanza

Friday, November 30th, 2007

It was more research yesterday. I found the Actors Equity union website, and as luck would have it, they have their contracts posted in PDF files! Yea! So now I have a general idea what kind of money my heroine would earn as a dancer. That’s a huge help because I was absolutely clueless and this will play a role in what kind of home she owns.

I didn’t read the entire contract, but it was really interesting to see what kind of things it covered. Costumes, who cleans them, how often they’re cleaned, who provides dance shoes, etc. One of the really surprising things for me was how little these performers make. I really thought that if they were good enough to be hired at that level that they’d be earning more. Wow.

But that’s really good information to have. Now I know that my heroine isn’t going to have a lot of extra money and that this probably isn’t a job she’s going to stay at forever. Of course, now I need to figure out what position a Polynesian dancer would aspire to hold.

More research to follow.

Tags: polynesia, research
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No Need To Yell "Fire" Last Night

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

Wednesday wasn’t nearly as exciting as Tuesday. Thank goodness.

I was able to see the A380–the really humongous plane from Airbus–again yesterday. It was parked right next to the hangars not that far from where I park my car. I was able to see it from nose to tail, and with the lighting on it, the plane looked way cool! It left today for Los Angeles and I was able to see it take off again, too. I got lucky both days on seeing it–somehow my timing on that was just perfect.

I had a surprise when I got home. As I went up the street, I hit the button for my garage door and turned in the driveway to see my dad standing there–and the door was going down. I was like, huh?

After a minute, the door opened again. It turns out that my dad and one of his lodge buddies were checking out my garage. You see, the electrician didn’t put any switches for my garage lights inside the garage. Yep, I know. I never thought to look for them because who would put the only switches inside the house??? Anyway, my dad’s friend can do electrical work and he was checking it out to add switches for me.

The story, however, doesn’t end at 3:30 in the afternoon. About 7:15 or so last night, the phone rings. Now my parents have developed this awful habit of calling me constantly for nothing and I figured that’s what this was, too. I was close. It was my dad, but it wasn’t nothing. His lodge buddy was coming over in about 20 minutes to put a new bulb in my garage door opener. Of course this meant I had to pull the SUV out and give the thumbs up on the new bulb wattage. It turns out that the guy who installed the door put in a candelabra bulb instead of a real one. No wonder my garage was so dark!

My plan was to go to bed really early last night, but they were still out in the garage, actually doing stuff for adding switches. Finally, around 8:30, I was allowed to pull the car back in the garage and my dad said he’d lock up and shut off all the lights if I wanted to go to bed. I did.

So I’m almost asleep and the phone rings. It’s my mom. She’s looking for my dad because he has a couple of phone calls. Gah! Now she’s developed an awful habit of no matter where Dad is or what he’s doing, if that phone rings, she’ll go and get him. What’s up with that? He could be in their backyard, trimming hedges, and she’ll leave the person sitting and walk all the way out to bring him in. I don’t know how many times I’ve told her to just take a message instead of bothering him, but she won’t. Last night this really bit me. Looks like I’ll be having another conversation with them about calling my house whenever they feel like it for no good reason. Sigh.

I guess I should just be relieved that nothing resembling a crisis happened.

Tags: airplanes, garage, lights
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Kitchen Adventures

Wednesday, November 28th, 2007

Yesterday I finally made some progress on chapter one. This version–maybe–might just be sticking. I’ve got my fingers crossed tightly.

However, I hit another setback. I don’t think the name I’m using for the heroine is the right one. Anyone who’s read this blog regularly knows I spent weeks trying to figure out her darn name–and that’s not an exaggeration. I’ve decided to keep moving forward with this name, but the problem is that I keep slipping and thinking of her by another heroine’s name. Good grief. Anyway, if she wants to use another name, she better speak up soon or forever be known as Chaya. I’m not wasting any more time on that.

Okay, I have an adventure to share. Last night, I went over to my parents’ house for a steak dinner. My mom put the meat on and asked me to watch it while she did something else. When it was time to turn it, the timer dinged and it was clear we’d had it in the broiler too long. I mentally readjusted the time my mom said we’d use for each side, flipped the meat, and set the timer again.

In a moment of true serendipity, I decided to wash my hands and grabbed the kitchen towel that was hanging on a handle above the oven we were broiling in. Instead of putting it back, I draped it over the back of a chair and then sat down to read the paper.

I hear a noise. It sounds like wind racing down a tunnel. I glance over and see flames shooting out of the oven. “Fire!” I yell.

I’m trying to decide what the hell to do. My parents’ fire extinguisher is way out of date and probably worthless. And keep in mind that I freeze up in a crisis, so I’m probably the worst possible person to be left with this problem. “Fire!” I yell again more loudly.

Somehow I get the idea to close the oven door. I was working on the theory that fire needs oxygen and there wouldn’t be much inside the oven. I open it again to check and see how that worked. The flames had died down, but when I opened the door, they whooshed back up. I shut it again.

Finally, my dad arrives. By then, the fire was mostly out. All I could think was thank God I’d moved that towel. As dangerous a spot as that is, we’ve always hung the kitchen towel on the handle of the upper oven (it’s a double unit). It scares the hell out of me to think of the towel igniting and how fast that blaze could have spread. Talk about needing to say a few thank yous to the universe. Whew!

And to think, my original story was going to be about how I watched the Airbus A380 take off from the airport on Tuesday. I thought that was exciting, guess I learned differently.

Tags: adventures, writing
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Picture Searches

Tuesday, November 27th, 2007

My holiday cards arrived yesterday, so it’s all okay. They turned out nice, now I just need time to write them up and send them out.

The UPS guy also brought copies of Through a Crimson Veil in French. I think I got 5 copies and they’re really banged up. Good thing I ordered from Amazon France when the book first came out. Not only did I get cleaner, nicer looking copies, but I also got them much sooner. Not that I can read French, but one of my writing buddies is a French teacher, so she can read it for me. I still think this is like the coolest thing ever. I should see if my friend will write up a contest thing for French speakers and they can win one. Heaven knows what I’ll do with this many copies. Of course, then I’d have to figure out how to read the entries.

In other news, I didn’t throw chapter 1 away yesterday and start over–yet. I’m taking this as a good sign. I ended up doing a lot of research today, and darn I wish I could find better pictures of Port Canaveral. Most of what I found involved the big cruise ships and I’m interested in the docks for the charter fishing boats. I finally ended up plugging addresses into Google Maps to try and figure out where the big ships were in comparison to the fishing vessels, but I still need to know where the parking lot is and what kind of view someone sitting in their car would have of the water. This is why futuristics are easier–I could just make up a port and set it up however worked for me. Instead, here I am trying to use a real port.

Tags: books, crimson_veil, writing
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Two Steps Back

Monday, November 26th, 2007

So Saturday night, I cut the entire first chapter of the proposal in progress. Again. I’ve lost track now of how many times I’ve been forced to do this. I know it had to be done otherwise it would take far too long to get the story rolling, but I’m not sure if this new way is working either. I’m on page four and so far the heroine is just sitting in her car. I hope I’ve added enough tension to make it work, but…

I guess I’ll find out when I either a) cut the chapter again and start over or b) send it to my writing buddies and hear them shriek in horror.

Over the long weekend, I also watched a lot of animal shows on a variety of channels. The highlight was March of the Penguins although I managed to miss most of it. The thing is do these shows always have to be so depressing? I’ve seen dead penguins galore. I’ve seen other birds attack baby penguins. I’ve watched baby turtles drown and watched a wolf run down a baby caribou or gazelle or something. It gets even worse when they talk about how man has treated animals. Just once I’d like to see an animal show where they don’t show them dying, being hunted by man or other animals, and where I don’t have to hear about how their numbers have been decimated.

Don’t even get me started about the damn whale hunters.

I know. It’s the way things are, but I still want to see the Disney version of nature just for a break from the endless loss of life.

Tags: TV, writing
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Movie Review: Just Like Heaven

Sunday, November 25th, 2007

It’s been so long since I’ve done a movie review, y’all probably forgot that it used to be a regular feature here. I’m hoping to get back on track now that baseball season is over. Just a warning, since this movie is from 2005 there might be spoilers. If you don’t want to know what happens, stop reading here.

This week’s movie is Just Like Heaven starring Reese Witherspoon as Doctor Elizabeth Masterson and Mark Ruffalo as David Abbott.

Elizabeth is a doctor/workaholic who’s putting in 24 hour days in the Emergency Room. She really does care about the people she’s treating, though. Her older married sister has set her up on a blind date, and because of a patient, Elizabeth is running late. It’s okay, though, because the guy she’s been set up with hasn’t shown either. On the way over to the house, her car is hit by a truck.

David is looking for a furnished apartment in San Francisco, but his real estate agent is taking him to these bizarre places that he can’t stand. A piece of paper with the information on a unit that’s open to be sublet literally hits him in the face. He loves the view and the furniture and agrees to the month to month arrangement. What he’s doing to earn money is anyone’s guess since all he seems to do is drink beer and lie around. Then Elizabeth shows up and wants to know what he’s doing in her apartment. When he insists he lives there, she goes to call the police–and disappears into thin air.

As it turns out, David is the only one who can see Elizabeth, and since she has no memory, she wants him to help her figure out who she is and what’s going on.

The movie is a comedy and a romance. There were actually a fair amount of funny moments, but the romance between Elizabeth and David was rather weak and happened pretty quickly. I totally guessed what the deal was with Elizabeth, but I’m not sure it really mattered since the film isn’t trying to be The Sixth Sense, which is a good thing since I guessed all the secrets pretty early.

The casting was believable, but there wasn’t much depth to the secondary characters. And I thought the ending was okay, but I would have liked more. There is an alternative ending on the DVD Extras and I loathed it–I’m definitely glad they went with the one they did over that one.

Overall, it wasn’t a horrible way to spend a couple of hours.

My rating: 3.25 stars out of 5

Tags: movies, reviews
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The Only Way to Shop

Saturday, November 24th, 2007

While thousands of people across the country shopped the day after Thanksgiving, I took a better approach–I shopped online. I figured out what to get my parents for Christmas–they’re notoriously hard to shop for–and picked that out when I got home from their place on Thursday night. It took a little doing, but I found a great digital camera for them at a good price and with free shipping. I absolutely refuse to pay for shipping this year since all the news shows have said so many online stores are waiving it.

As good as I did on Thanksgiving, though, I did even better on Friday–although it was inadvertent. My dad called a little after 10 and said the plumber was coming out around 1pm to look at the guest bathroom toilet. (We were forced to turn the water off because it wouldn’t stop running.) Anyway, we’d been waiting a few weeks for this guy and yesterday was the day–whether I liked it or not. Fortunately, though, my dad volunteered to come over and handle this and suggested I could go to their house and write.

First, though, I needed to do some cleaning. I ran through the house dusting and vacuuming everything. The place looks good if I do say so myself.

Thursday when I’d been over at my parents’ house, I’d been looking at their TV stand and thinking that wouldn’t make a bad coffee table. Okay, so I’m getting desperate! I’ve been looking and looking and haven’t been able to find anything that’s a small enough size. The few things I have spotted have all been black or some other dark stain and that’s totally not me or my house.

So while I was at my parent’s place, I began searching for the TV stand. Best Buy had it and the price was right, but they only had it in black. I started doing some online searches, trying to find the same brand, but in a wood tone–and without paying $60 in shipping on a $90 TV stand. Somehow, I ended up at Target.com. They didn’t have the unit I was looking at, but I thought since I was there I’d do a little search for coffee tables. They’d had one I’d almost bought last summer, but it was a really dark stain again and I didn’t love it. And Friday, as I’m paging through the hits my search turned up, I spotted it! A coffee table that I liked!

I didn’t let my excitement get too high, after all, over and over again I’d seen something I really liked only to find out it was too big for my small space. Except this time, this time it was perfect. Both length and width fit my maximum requirements. Only drawbacks–the table wasn’t available in the store and they wanted me to pay for shipping. And like I said earlier, I’m not paying for shipping, not even for furniture.

So began my online quest to find another reputable online outlet that wasn’t charging shipping and wasn’t jacking up the price of the furniture. And miracle of miracles, I found one! Yes! Their prices were slightly lower than Target and shipping was free. Happy dog dancing. It truly was meant to be. I wasted no time ordering it and two matching side tables. It isn’t the coolest coffee table I’ve seen, but the one that claims that title was almost as wide as my entire living area. This is my favorite table that fits in my small sized living room.

You’re dying to see what this table looks like, right? Well, even if you’re not, I’m sharing anyway after the year and a half long search, I deserve to show it off a little.

Coffee Table

Side Table

Accent Table

My biggest wish for the coffee table–aside from its size–was that it have a shelf and a drawer(s). Now I’ll have room to put my reference books and manuscripts while I work and I’ll be able to fold up the step ladder I’ve been using as a table and put it away. Hurrah!

The only downside? I didn’t get any writing done today and my goal was to really pound out some pages.

And the other big news for Friday was that my dad asked the plumber to put up my shower curtain rod in the guest bathroom and he did! I bought the shower curtain before I moved into the house so we’re talking about 18 months here and I was beginning to wonder if it would ever go up.

Tags: house, shopping
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Happy Thanksgiving

Thursday, November 22nd, 2007

Sexy & Romantic glitter graphics from S e x i l u v . c o m

I hope everyone is having a great Thanksgiving so far.

Today’s the day where bloggers across the internet are talking about what they’re thankful for. It’s always good to reflect on the positive things in life, but I’m only going to mention one thing here.

It was 5 years ago this month that my first book came out. Ravyn’s Flight had a release date of Nov 12, 2002 and it’s been a hell of a five years since that point. Since then I’ve had five books and a novella released and my sixth comes out next summer. I’ve learned a lot and met some wonderful people. It’s been a hell of a ride; thank you for sharing some of it with me.

Happy Thanksgiving

Tags: holidays, memories, rf
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Whoosh! Creative Wave

Wednesday, November 21st, 2007

I was minding my own business yesterday, just standing in the restroom at the Evil Day Job and watching them do construction at the back end of the parking lot when boom! It happened. A new character came in and started talking to me. She gave me her name first–it’s not her real one, but it’s the one she’s using now. You see, she’s not human and she changes names from time to time. Then she started filling me in on herself and what she does. I made notes this time, not like with In the Midnight Hour where I relied on my memory.

Do I have to mention that I’m suddenly much more interested in this new story than in my Polynesian h/h? I mean, come on, I’m still floundering with that story and have cut chapter one like three times now and started over again. Heck, if the prologue wasn’t done and something I’m really happy with, I would have ditched this couple hours ago. What can I say? New ideas are always much more fascinating than the old.

I think I even have the information on this new heroine’s hero. Maybe. No names for him yet, but I’m not worried about that since it’s the women who I’ve been struggling with on that front. I’m also not sure how their romance would wrap up given their respective, um, situations. But I want to spend more time with them, not fight with my current heroine. Sigh.

I blame Carolyn Jewel for this. Yes, Carolyn, you! This was the barest glimmer of an idea from months ago and something I hadn’t planned to pursue, but clearly reading Carolyn’s blog post about channeling characters brought Liza in. (Yes, God help me, she told me her name was Liza. Sigh. I suppose this is better than struggling to come up with a name, but honestly, do I sound like someone who’d write a Liza? Maybe she’ll change her mind…. Well, I can hope, darn it!)

So how did Liza communicate with me? First person narrative. That’s unusual for me, although not unheard of. At first I thought she wanted me to tell her story in first person, ::shudder:: but I think that was just how she was transmitting information to me because a little bit later I had the opening of the book in third person. Anyway, I started asking her questions and received a few answers–at least until women started entering the bathroom and disturbed my communion with my heroine. That did it for the day, but I hope to reestablish the connection soon–even if it’s my Tahitian heroine I need to have talking to me instead.

Tags: characters, chat, ideas
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How Did I Survive Dial Up?

Tuesday, November 20th, 2007

As God as my witness, I’ll never go back to dial up ever again! (To paraphrase Scarlett O’Hara.) OMG, I had to use dial up to test load times on various versions of my banner and it was absolutely excruciating. I love broadband and I can’t believe it took me so long to get it. Of course, I still believe they charge way too much, but I think I’d beg on street corners before going backward.

Anyway, the original banner took 1 minute and 30 seconds to load. Absolutely unacceptable. I messed around with gifs and jpgs and compression until I came up with what’s currently loaded. I lost quality–boo–but it’s loading in about 30 seconds. Still too long, but much better than the original. I’ll have to mess around again over the long weekend to see if I can trim the load time some more, but for the work week, I’ve done as much as I can do.

This, of course, took far too much time and I didn’t finish until nearly 7pm.

I volunteered to approve comments on the group blog that I’m a part of and I have to say that I absolutely can’t believe the amount of spam that comes through. We’ve heard about car sales from Socrates and assorted other dead Greek and Roman guys. Fortunately, pretty much all of it ends up in the spam folder, but good grief. Do these people not have better things to do than build spam bots to go around touting used cars? None of it makes it through, so what’s the point?

My red amaryllis is growing nicely. It’s really actually kind of fun because they’re coming up so fast, I can see the difference overnight. When I have flowers, I’ll take pictures. Of course.

Tags: blogging, spam, websites
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