Thursday Thirteen

13 things Mechele loves about the Holidays 1. The music: I have XM radio so there are several stations to choose from. Trans Siberian Orchestra ROCKS. Love their music. Like a lot of the traditional stuff. And also enjoy the parodies. LOL there are more Twelve days of Christmas parodies than I’d ever imagined. I’ve only heard Snoopy’s Christmas once though *sigh* I’m a fan of Christmas carols and have been singing/humming them for a week now. 2. The lights: I love Christmas lights. My favorite thing as a child and still, is to sit in front of the tree and watch the lights blink off and on. 3. The tree: I love to decorate the Christmas tree. It never turns out the same way it did last year and each year is the best year yet. I love all the ornaments that are sentimental. I have so many the kids have made. Plus collectibles that are meaningful like Our first Christmas and the baby’s first Christmas ornaments. I have two extras of the baby ornaments to seed my girls’ first tree of their own. I also have Snoopy ornaments, Rudolph ornaments, some stained glass ones that the hubby and I made very early in our marriage, and there’s an old Star Trek shuttle that can talk when plugged into a light. 4. My Christmas village: I have a bunch of houses that I set on top of the entertainment center. There’s a whole little town of small ones. A gingerbread trio. A reindeer barn. A gorgeous humongous church and an Italian restaurant. This year I put down white draping so it looks like there is snow. 5. My Christmas Snoopys: I started collecting them one a year, years ago. I get the stuffed ones with the Whitman candy boxes. I have a bunch now. They are soooo cute. I have a couple of Woodstocks as well. 6. Decking the halls. At Halloween, the kids asked about the stuff inside. They said not many will see it. I said, “But we will. We do it for ourselves.” I do a lot of decorating that I doubt anyone notices at Christmas. It’s for me. We have a ceramic lighthouse on our mantel. I always deck it out. I think almost every room in the house has a little piece of Christmas. I’m letting the girls put up stuff in their room. For them. 7. Getting Christmas cards: I love the pretty pictures or humorous scenes. I love getting notes from people and catching up on their lives. 8. Buying presents for people: I don’t like the crowds or actually going to shop. But I love to find that perfect gift. 9. My inflatable Snoopy: Yes, this out in our yard right now. If it ever breaks, I will cry. I love my Snoopy. 10. Holiday specials: I love the classic holiday specials! Peanuts is a given LOL. I also love The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. “You’re a mean one, Mr. Grinch.” Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer! Frosty! Santa Claus is Coming to Town. One of my favorites is A Muppet Family Christmas. I have it taped from ages ago but my tape is breaking down. The current released versions don’t contain all the songs *sigh*. One of the neatest things is that Jim Henson appears at the end. Not to mention the Christmas story is a wonderful read. I also love nativities and pageants and choirs. It’s a fun time to go see things. 11. Holiday giving and cheer. Granted there are some grinches, but a lot neat things happen at the holidays. We’ve adopted an Angel this year and I’m really tickled by how excited my kids are about it. They want to help pick out things. I remember one year a radio station person found out about this family. The son had a birth defect and was undergoing several operations. The family had lots of money problems. So the station did a drive for them. The response was tremendous. The family was shocked. They hadn’t sought help, it had come out offhand. 12. The food. Uggh a bad time to be on a diet. Ham and turkey and traditional fair. Cookies and candy. My youngest has discovered egg nog. She’s in heaven. Told me yesterday, “Uh we’re getting low on eggnog.” Gingerbread coffee creamers. Holiday coffees from Starbucks. Yummmmmm. 13. It was right around Christmas that I saw a certain gentleman at a friend’s house. I remember the day so well! And he called to ask me out on the week after Christmas. Our fist date was on New Year’s Eve. We were married on New Year’s Eve. It’s been way long since we met and went on our first date. And we’ll have been married for 15 years this year.

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others' comments. It’s easy, and fun! Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Holday Hotties

This deserved its own post.

I'm participating on a contest done by TJ Michaels, Holiday Hotties. Check it out.

A tukey induced coma

Yes, Thanksgiving was fun. Ate too much and spent lots of time with family.

Got to see the Mist, based on a Stephen King novella. Loved it up until the last two minutes. The movie really follows the book's story. The additions make sense in the spirit of the story. Up until the last two minutes. I liked the hero and the secondary characters. The effects were great. If only they hadn't changed the book ending *sigh*.

It looks like Christmas threw up in my living room. LOL. We pulled down the mountain of Christmas stuff but I'm still working on decking the halls. The tree is up and beautiful. I love going through the ornaments. So many are special.

The dog said the Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer puppets that got left out were quite yummy.

We are still working to declutter the house. I'm going to go through the Christmas stuff with a discerning eye. We just have too much "stuff." We pulled boxes out the attic and got rid of a lot of things. If we haven't needed it in the eight years since it went up there...

I'm also thinking a lot about my career and where I want to go as this year ends. The last two years have been phenomenal ones. And I hope the next years will be just as good. I want to declutter my writing life as well. I have a few projects that have been put on the back burner due to time constraints. I really want to pull them out next year and work on them. It's time.

NaNo is a no go. :( I'm dispapointed with that. Have written 26500 on my NaNo project, a new Settler's Mine story. I hope to hit 30 on it by the weekend so will be about 20 K shy of 50.

However, Sven is going well. I've written about 58 K total for Seventy Days of Sweat. Turned two new projects into my editor *crosses finger and scrunches up face in prayer*. Hope to have a partial on Settler's Mine into the editor soon.

May the muses get rid of clutter
Mechele

Happy Thanksgiving!

In honor of the holiday, one of the funniest Thanksgiving sitcomes ever!

Need a break? Come chat tonight

Tonight, I’ll be chatting at the M-spot at 9 PM EST with buds Melissa Lopez (aka Mel of Melany Logen and Rissa of Marissa Alwin) and Mari of Marissa Alwin. We are sure to have a lot of fun. Here’s the link:

http://www.melissa-lopez.com/chat.html


May the muses have buds
Mechele

Did you know?

The Mist by Stephen King was going to be a major motion picture? I didn't. Remember I posted it in Thirteen Scary Things a few weeks back?



I watched the previews. OMG it looks so good! The director is the one who did the Shawshank Redemption and the Green Mile, two of my favorite King movies.



I want to go see it. The movie opens next week. I'm going to see who I can con into kidsitting for me. I will go alone if I have to but, I think I'm going to need a hand to squish...her hold.



May the muses have good movies

Mechele



PS New Settler's Mine

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Songs you don't want to be riding in a car with me when they come on by Mechele 1. Pour Some Sugar on me by Def Leppard. Was there really any doubt this would be on the list? This one involves dancing, too *G*. 2. I can’t hold back by Survivor 3. Faithfully by Journey 4. Angel by Aerosmoth 5. Missing you by John Waite or John Waite and Allison Kraus 6. Broken by Seether, featuring Amy Lee 7. O’Holy Night by various arists 8. The Heart of Rock & Roll by Huey Lewis and the News 9. Summer of 69 by Bryan Adams 10. John Deere Green by Joe Diffie 11. Snoopy Christmas by the Royal Guardsman (I actually have the whole tape and it’s a whole little story with three or four other songs dealing with Snoopy and the Red Baron) 12. Red High Heels by Kellie Pickler 13. Heart and Soul by T’Pau. There are more but these are thirteen songs I always sing along to. Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Veterans: Nothing to Lose released today!

Yes, good thing there aren't video cameras in my house. I've been dancing!

Check it out here. Read an excerpt here.

May the muses have fun new releases.

Mechele

It's coming....

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Reasons you should check out Veterans: Nothing to Lose by Mechele Armstrongwhen it releases SOON 1. It has a tortured hero, Richard Rollins, who must come to terms with the sins of his past. 2. It's hopefully HOT. One my of my critique partners says it's one of the sexiest stories I've ever written. 3. It's a romance! 4. It's about a veteran, Rich, who served in the army in the Iraqui war. And it is Veteran's Day on Sunday. 5. It's a menage. 6. It's loosely connected to three great other books in the Veterans series, For the Love of the Corps by Bobby Michaels, Risen from Ash by Rachel Bo, and Through the Fire by Liz Andrews. But all the books stand alone and also do not have to be read in any order. 7. Bryan Gauld, the other guy in the menage, is darn hot. So it's like a two for one sale, two hot guys for the price of one book *G*. 8. Niki Gauld is an outspoken, mischevious woman who knows what she wants. She's not a simpering flower. I think I'd like her in real life so you might, too. 9. There are a few twists and turns along the way. What fun would it be if the path of love ran smooth? 10. There are toys and Rich gets to have a lot of fun, which makes Niki and Bryan have fun, too. 11. It has a great cover! 12. While Rich is the tortured hero, there's a lot of light moments along with some humor. 13. Niki and Bryan aren't about to let Rich get away. Find out how they reel him in! Veterans: Nothing to Lose releases on Tuesday. Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

A Conversation

Littlest one: Do we have an alarm?

Hubby: You mean a fire alarm?

LO: No.

H: You mean a burglar alarm?

LO: Yeah.

H: Oh yeah, we have those. *points to cat and dog* Cat and dog.

LO: *snort* the dog doesn't bark.


Flash forward to last night. Hubby is coming home. Dog is at the top of the steps. Dog hears someone on the porch messing with the door knob.

*growl growl growl bark Bark BARK*

She may not bark often, but when she does...wow.






The new Settle's Mine tale

May the muses have guard dogs and kitties
Mechele

In a military mood? Want a great read?

Now available from Loose Id, the first two veterans' stories. They don't have to be read in any order and they all stand alone. They are are all loosely connected.

I'm really quite proud to have been a part of the veterans' series.

A new interview and a new story

Paranormal romance interviewed me! For November's Paraphernalia. *grins* I'm excited about this because I've been reading at Paranormal Romance forever.

Link


And I've started a new story. The next Settler's Mine, but haven't titled it yet. Oddly enough, it was the story I had planned to write. Yesterday, a story and characters starting speaking. Loudly. So I put aside the character I was going to write. And I'm loving it so far.




May the muses have the unexpected
Mechele

Another one bites the dust

It's done! I love it, I love it. Deidre, while a harsh taskmaster LOL, is really fun to write. Still needs a lot of fine tuning but the bulk of the story is there.

Six Cursed Halloweens topped out at 15K.

May the muses have harsh taskmasters
Mechele

Why Mechele isn't posting her Thursday thirteen

She's this close to finishing my story.

And if you think I'll set her free to do a Thursday Thirteen, well *evil laughter* you don't know me very well. Probably because you haven't met met...yet. Give it until December's release of The Six Curses of Christmas. Then, you'll understand.

Mechele did want me to post this video until she can make out of my writing dungeon for your amusement. As an xbox 360 widow she can sympathize. Though right now it's broken. *more evil laughter*






*looks up* back to typing, wench.

Deidre