Yes!

Ever have one of those days when you think you're too tired/fried to write but you sit down for a minute anyway and then just do some really fantastic work?

My naptime writing session was like that today.

Aaaaah, happiness. These are my favorite sort of afternoons.

Just wanted to share.

Why do my Google alerts suck?

Someone in the industry told me to use them to keep tabs on stuff like werewolves and YA fiction, but they're not capturing anything worthwhile - often the results aren't even relevant! Is that common? Can anyone fix my boolean terms to get better results?

I'll take any suggestions I can get (and if you're not using Google alerts to keep track of stuff, a well-known publicist says to do it, so . . . go!)

Hope is Born ...

It's time for a new beginning, new hope, a new world.

Oh, maaan!

So, here I was, naively hoping to finish the draft of my next novel before beginning the revisions for my editor on the first.

HA! I realized I had a little problem with the villain. Little. Tiny. And after pow-wowing with the wonderful Wordslingers, I found a fantastic solution. Which is great! But I'd guess it'll take me another 20,000 words to remedy the situation. Plus writing the end of the book. And that just ain't gonna happen in the next two weeks. Siiiiiiiiigh. Oh, well. I took good notes on what I want to do, and maybe I can sneak in a little work when I'm tired of revising.

On a funnier note, the conversation about what I should do involved one Wordslinger actually saying the words "murder is always good." The funny part is that the rest of the 'slingers roundly agreed with this statement. Man, we're weird. Thank goodness we can at least be weird together!

Am I Getting Old?

Concerts are strange. The big stadium concerts, I mean.
Think about it. You pay $40.00 to watch big screen TVs in the cold and sing along with 40,000 of your very close friends. You're lucky to get within a hundred yards of the singers.
So when we arrived at the stadium and Miguel Bose came out, I wasn't ready for the intensity of 40,000 people bursting and bubbling across the stadium. It was like getting injected with pure energy.
He started on time, at 8:00 pm, and we sang, danced, laughed, and yearned for more. After a stage change (a 30 minute pause around 10:15), Juanes came out and rocked the stadium. And he sang, and sang. And sang.
Now, don't get me wrong. I LOVE Juanes. I love what he's done for Colombia. He's about the sexiest man on the planet and an amazing performer. Regardless, I started to get really tired, the cold biting into my clothes, and couldn't help but daydream about hot chocolate. I even think I nodded off during a couple of his newer songs.
Midnight came around, and he was still singing. He came out for an encore and said, "YOU ARE MY BOSSES. I'LL SING AS LONG AS YOU'D LIKE." That's when I thought, "For the love of God somebody has got to stop this man. Please." I, of course, didn't vocalize that because I didn't want to be the bane of 39,999 avid fans. In Colombia, nobody stops Juanes.
Certain that we'd never, ever, ever get home, I thought I had two options: one, enjoy the concert or two, pray that it would end soon. Naturally I opted for number two. I was so so tired. We'd be there forever and ever listening to music in the cold when I could be sleeping.
I'm getting old.

Crap.

Happy 2009!

Happy New Year!!

Of course I have to be cliche and write a Happy New Year post. It's just "the thing" to do.

Anyway, New Year's is quite an event in Colombia. At midnight, at home, all you've gotta do is find someone to kiss. (Yes, I know. I went through decades in which that was about as likely as Victoria Beckham buying a pair of Payless shoes.)
Here, though, it takes a lot of coordination to do everything 'just right.' When the clock starts to strike twelve, you have to eat twelve peeled grapes and make a wish on each dong. No time to chew. Then, as soon as that's over, everybody runs around the block with a suitcase to make sure they'll travel during the year. Then we take out a life-size doll -- the old year -- and burn it. Kind of like starting the New Year with a clean slate. All this is done at midnight -- somehow. And then, of course, the fireworks (yes, they're illegal, but here 'illegal' always has a subjective interpretation and no our fireworks don't REALLY look like the picture) all the while wearing yellow underwear (which I've never been a fan of for probably pretty obvious reasons) and the party begins. Sigh. I'm tired. And New Years was almost five days ago. We always spend the New Year with all of my husband's family. (It's a HUGE family holiday here -- not like at home where you go off with friends). His mom, her three siblings, and all of their families. There are about twenty of us doing these crazy antics, and this year we spent the rest of the night singing karaoke. Which, admittedly, I LOVE! I'm horrible, but I just LOVE karaoke. Yes, send me to the cheese factory, but at least I'm honest about it. Lots of people won't admit it.

The thing I love: NO RESOLUTIONS. Which I've always thought were pretty tedious. I mean why start the year off with a bazillion things you haven't done? It's just better to burn the doll.

Anyway, I hope this year brings everyone wonders, peace and joy.

Happy 2009
Let the writing begin ...

Heidi

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. ~Bill Vaughan

(Personally, I'm just glad I can make it to midnight half the time. Sigh. Am I getting old???)

My Green Dilemma

Both Heidi and Trish have recently mentioned heros and villians and that's gotten me thinking about a little problem I've developed. I've been reading Wicked by Gregory Maguire and I'm very nearly done but I've reached a point where I don't want to read anymore, in fact I haven't cracked it open since before Christmas. Not because, I lost interest or I didn't care about the characters. Quite the opposite. I care too much about the characters. Both Elphie and Glinda. I obviously know how the story ends and I just can't bring myself to read about the death of the Wicked Witch of the West. Last week, the Wizard of Oz was on TV, looped for twenty-four hours for the holidays. I found that I couldn't bring myself to watch. Maguire has taken one of the most evil characters from my childhood that had not a shred of goodness in her and made her so real and sympathetic that I get mad at the good guys for offing her! I'm not sure how this will affect me reading other works by the talented Maguire, I don't want any more of my fairy tales messed with. But it brings me to an interesting question...can a villian be too sympathetic that it destroys their badness? Thinking that hard makes my head hurt :)

Mandy

PS I should mention that I'm also reading What-the-Dickens, Maguires childrens offering and am greatly enjoying it and not having my good and evil roles challenged in the process.