Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Two in one day

Yes, don't keel over from surprise.

But...LOOOOK!!!!!!!!

http://bbryce.blogspot.com/2005/09/sunday-sept-25-05.html#comments

*goes dancing around my living room*

Thank you Brenda! Brenda has a wonderful book that just came out a few weeks ago, called "Regulating Archimedes." *grins* I got a preview of that, and it's a great read. www.brendabryce.com

I'm off to do some more dancing. LOL I told you in the post below this one, I'm a sap. This is like my first review.

May the muses have snoopy dances
Mechele

I'm such a sap

On Monday, I was listening to XM radio. The DJ was talking about Rascal Flatts having a concert in Nasheville, I think it was over the weekend. Their record company presented them with a donation to a children's hospital for $250,000. Rascal Flatts then made the announcement that all proceeds from that concert would go to the hospital, about an additional $350,000. It wound up being the largest single donation in the hospital's history.

So I figured what was coming next. They played Rascal Flatts' single "Skin." It's a hidden track on their last album. l love the song, but it gets me everytime. It's about a teenager who gets diagnosed with probable cancer (they never say exactly what it is but it sounds like it). Usually, I make it to the final stanza before crying.

Not this day. I started in the first stanza and cried all the way to the end. *sigh* Had to drop the youngest kidlet off at preschool looking like I had intensive allergies.

I knew I liked Rascal Flatts, and now I have even more reason to.

http://www.rascalflatts.com/

Here's a link to the article on what they did (amazing what you find when you Google) with the name of the hospital: http://www.rascalflatts.com/news.aspx?ni=256&pi=1

Loose Id is doing a blog for Katrina Relief. There are a lot of great stories over there. They ask if you read them, to make a donation. *cough* my story will be over there soon. I'll let you know when.

http://www.livejournal.com/community/li_katrina_aid/

May the muses have tissues in the car (unlike me)
Mechele

Saturday, September 24, 2005

Banned Books Week


http://www.ala.org/ala/oif/bannedbooksweek/bannedbooksweek.htm

When I was in high school, the high school library got rid of "Salem's Lot" by Stephen King. It was a book I'd already read, and it distressed me greatly they were kicking it out. The list of books that there have been attempts to have them removed boggles my mind.

So go read a banned book today.

Mechele

Thursday, September 22, 2005

Two inspirations








Lyrics for Song: Dream Big
Artist/Band: Shupe Ryan
Lyrics for Album: Dream Big(Ryan Shupe & The Rubberband)

When you cry, be sure to dry your eyes,
'Cause better days are sure to come.
And when you smile, be sure to smile wide,
And don't let them know that they have won.
And when you walk, walk with pride,
And don't show the hurt inside,
Because the pain sill soon be gone.

(Chorus)
And when you dream, dream big,
As big as the ocean, blue.
'Cause when you dream it might come true.
But when you dream, dream big.


And when you laugh, be sure to laugh out loud,
'Cause it will carry all your cares away.
And when you see, see the beauty all around and in yourself,
And it will help you feel okay.
And when you pray, pray for strength to help to carry on,
But when the troubles come your way.

(Chorus)
And when you dream, dream big,
As big as the ocean, blue.
'Cause when you dream it might come true.
But when you dream, dream big. (Dream big.)(Dream big.)


When you cry be sure to dry your eyes, cause better days are sure to come.
And when you smile be sure to smile wide, and
don't let them know that they have won.
And when you laugh be sure to laugh out loud,
'Cause it will carry all your cares away.
And when you see, see the beauty all
around and in yourself, and it will help you feel okay.
And when you pray, pray for strength to help to carry on
when the troubles come your way.

Chorus 2x



And oddly enough....Not naked men inspirations *blinks*.

The song reminds me to have big dreams. And when I dream of things to come for me...I look at the banner to remind me...what I've already done.


May the muses have big dreams
Mechele

Sunday, September 18, 2005

Who's afraid of the big bad submission?

Me.

We all have fears. Some of them are rooted in reality. My fear when people go under anesthesia is based on personal experience where I know there are no routine surgeries. The fear is more serious than the actual risk I think. Even minor surgeries on my family make me a basket case. Some fears aren't rooted in reality at all. The boogeyman. Or at least I *hope* it's not.

We authors seem to have a lot of fears.

When you first start writing, you worry about having enough plot, being able to finish, writing well enough. Once you finish the apprehension starts about selling it. Will I ever get it published? That's where I was six months ago.

And I thought once I sold my first book, that'd be the end of it. The end of fear as I knew it. But it's not. Instead, whole new legions of fears start. About promoting. Selling enough books. Getting the second one finished. Not being a one hit wonder.

Now that I've finished Conduit, I'm as worried about submitting it as I was Blood Kiss. Maybe even more so.

And what I've seen lately is that it pretty much never ends.

Authors with five and six books worry about hitting a slump or not selling enough for publishers to keep them on. Authors on the best sellers list worry they didn't chart high enough. Authors at the top of their game worry about staying there.

So why the heck do we write?

Simple answer to that one. Writers can't not write.

I've had periods where I didn't write. I was not a happy camper. I'm so much happy when I'm writing. And it actually doesn't matter what it is. I'm happy writing poetry, LOL which I'll never sell. I'm happy writing on the fanfiction loop that I write on. It's fun and it all belongs to the author who's loop it is.

I so enjoyed writing Conduit because it poured out from me on the page. The momentum kept up, it wouldn't let me write other things. It was a wonderful book to write. No matter what happens with it, I'm proud of it.

I try to balance the fear and doing what I love to do, and I do love to write. It's not all bad. Conduit, despite the scary place it's in, proves that.

May the muses speak loudly and carry big whips
Mechele

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

I went from Mom of the year to crying children in three seconds flat

Decided to make cookies this afternoon. Surprised the kidlets with them. They were singing my praises. I pulled them out of the oven. Showed them the hot baked cookies.

And dropped the pan on the floor.

*sigh*

Apparently, I may not be the Cookie Queen LOL.

May the muses not spill the milk at least
Mechele

Sunday, September 11, 2005

Soccer Mom

Yesterday, I got a dose of what my Saturdays are going to be like for the next two months. Busy, busy, busy. Both girls are playing soccer.

LOL I admit I'm looking forward to watching the four year olds play. Watching them practice was a hoot. Especially as mine kept laying on her ball. I guess she figured no one could take it if she laid on it. Interesting strategy.

The six year old's team seems to be getting a bit more serious. They said they were going to have strict bounds this year. LOL they tried that in the first game of last spring's soccer. In a minute, the ball had been out four times. So needless to say, the bounds got looser.

Monday night Loose Id is doing a Katrina Relief Red Cross Chatathon at Romance Junkies from 8-10 PM. Anyone who donates to the Red Cross during the chat and sends one of the moderators an email receipt will be eligible to win a door prize. Melissa Schroeder, Vivi Anna, Brenda Bryce, Tiffany Aaron, Camille Anthony, Jeanne Barrack, Cher Gorman, Lena Austin, Katriena Knights, Amelia Elias, Lucynda Storey, Lori-Lynne Browne, Allie McKnight (also Sage Grayson), Treva Harte, Jill Shearer, Lauren Dane and myself will be in attendance. The door prizes are numerous and wonderful, including a $10 Loose Id Gift certificate from moi. Come out and play with the Iddies *grins* if you can.

Here's the link: http://www.romancejunkies.com/chat.html

Once you enter the chat room - you will be in the lobby - click on the Rooms tab at the top, click on 'RJ Chat' and then click on change rooms.


I'm not going to comment on this but that I'm posting it, probably tells you how I feel.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/09/AR2005090901824.html

http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/
http://www.jcwilder.com/
http://www.hsus.org/
www.noahswish.org


May the muses have soccer balls
Mechele

Thursday, September 08, 2005

They're in

Edits ,I mean. So I'm busily working them to get them back. And *gulps* my goal is to get Blood Kiss back and turn Conduit in for perusal about the same time. Which causes lots of...heart pounding and dry mouth. I'll post on that when I do submit it.

Right now I'm looking at comma inserstions, deletions, typos. Amazing how much you wind up not seeing. And I hate commas. Truly, I do.

May the muses have red pens
Mechele

Monday, September 05, 2005

End of Summer

I know technically it's not. Still a few more weeks. But after Labor Day always seemed to be the end of summer when I was growing up. Pools closed. School started.

I know I was a bad blogger last week. Did a lot of stuff with the kidlets on their last week before school starts and as it was finally cool enough to spend some time outdoors without drinking gargantuan amounts of water and sweating just sitting down.

I'm working to edit Conduit, get it ready to submit (though like with blogging, I got behind on it). I hope to do that by next week. The third vampire novel is congealing in my head. I have the hero and heroine. I got smacked with another story this weekend. Would go right along with my paranormalish stuff. A shapeshifter. So playing with both of those ideas. I'm doing a book in a week challenge in a couple of weeks so hopefully will write my tushie off that week.

I'm so glad to see help moving in with Katrina ravaged New Orleans. And some good stories out of there and Mississippi and Alabama. I wanted to again urge everyone to give what they can. It's going to be a long slow process to recovery. And keep in mind, the TV cameras will get bored and move out of there to the next big story. But the people will still need help.

www.salvationarmy.com

I have been so impressed with the romance industry. They are stepping up to help. RT magazine is collecting supplies and donations for the Texas refugees. Lucynda Story (www.lucyndastorey.com) is donating a dollar from royalties on each of her books sold. Monica M. Martin. (http://www.monicammartin.com/) is donating 50% of sales from ebook royalties of Juliana's Portrait to the Australian Red Cross's hurricane relief fund. Fallen Angel Reviews is doing a book drive. I already pointed out the people helping Larissa Ione. I'm sure there are more I don't know about.

You can check back here, Loose Id will be doing a few things to help out with hurricane relief. As I get details I'll post them here but I'll be participating in whatever they do. I probably will be doing a short story, either written off the cuff or from a request.

Also, don't forget the animals. At least some of the people who didn't evacuate before Katrina did so because shelters won't take pets. The refugees aren't allowed to take pets with them. I know we've heard the story about the boy screaming for his dog, Snowball. These people have lost everything except literally the clothes on their back and they are losing again, something that could be a source of stability and comfort. Organizations are getting into these areas to rescue the animals left behind. And at least one group is taking in animals until their owners can take them back. A great thing to know your pet is safe until you are able to take them back. The Humane Society (http://www.hsus.org/) and Noah's Wish (www.noahswish.org) are two such organizations doing a lot to help the animals in these areas. PetSmart is also taking in donations to help animals.

May the muses have warm beds and dry clothes
Mechele