Dude, Where's My Muse?

Can you tell the type of week I've had?

Its been a weird one. I heard some people say maybe because of the eclipse. Could be. I just know things were odd lol

On the good news side, Chey's story got its first request :o) Yay woohoo and mega mega happy dance. Used my 25 word high concept pitch from the workshop this month and it sounded interesting to agent A, so get to email a partial next week. Its been so long since I've had anything out there, I'm a little nervous. Plus its the first story I've written first person... so yeah. But I'm excited too. :o)

Signed up for one workshop next month. Debated on whether or not to take it, but its on writing YA so I thought why not? Though I will never take 3 in a month again. Its just way too chaotic.

I can't believe its the end of August all ready. Its like where has the time gone? I'm busy collecting flower seeds every morning and some of the flowers still haven't bloomed. Or budded even which makes me scratch my head. I mean I know I planted early June but c'mon.

What's everyone looking forward to about September? Me... hmmm, only taking one workshop lol And the return of tv shows. The preview for Desperate Housewives looks pretty good

Has anyone seen the new Vancouver Canuck uniforms for this season? OMG. They are horrible. I'd upload a picture, but I can't bring myself to look at it longer than necessary. Go to tsn.ca if you need to have a look and check under NHL.

Uh yeah. I think if I want a Sedin or Bieksa jersey, I'm going with the old style. I don't care how stretchy and lighter the material is for the players, that thing if FUGLY! I mean why put VANCOUVER on there? The old ones last season were so much better.

Kinda anxious to see what the rest of the canadian teams new jersies look like

Decided to post about one of my favorite reads this month.

I was lucky enough to get an ARC of HUNTING THE DEMON by Jaci Burton (squee and happy dance!) After reading the first in the series (SURVIVING DEMON ISLAND) I couldn't wait to read the next. And Jaci does NOT disappoint with HUNTING (releases August 28th, available for pre-order).

IN A WILDERNESS SEETHING WITH SIN AND SEDUCTION, THE CHASE IS ON.

Hunting demons for a living can have its moments. Especially when Shay Pearson’s latest quarry is the gorgeous bronzed surfer who just stepped out of the sea. Uncovering Nic Diavolo’s devilish side could prove Shay’s toughest assignment yet. Because while she’s acting as bait to snatch this sexy bad boy, Nic’s got a plan of seduction no woman—earthly or otherwise–can resist.
Caught between two warring realms, Nic needs to stay alive long enough to figure out who his enemies are. That includes the beautiful hunter who won’t let him out of her sight. And something far worse: A force of evil with an almost unimaginable goal – possessing Nic’s very soul. But the hunt really heats up when a guy who’s hotter than Hades and a woman who’s afraid to love join forces, igniting an inferno of lust and longing that could send them into mortal danger…or straight into each other’s arms…
Hunting The Demon releases August 28th!
Buy at Amazon.comBuy at Barnes & Noble.com
You can read an excerpt of the book on Jaci's site. and read her blog Jaci's Blog here.

****

HUNTING THE DEMON is hotter. Sexier. And with a great sexy hero in Nic.
this one's a pageturner. The chemistry between Nic and Shay is sizzling. I read it over a weekend and if I hadn't had to go out, I would have read it through in one sitting. Seriously its that good.

If you like your paranormal on the dark and sexy side, go pick this one up :o)

Labels: Books

Sorry about the extended gap between blogs. Been B-U-S-Y.

Had a brilliant aha! moment on my YA wip, thanks to my high concept workshop and suddenly the story's been flipped on its head and I have 10K new words just from the weekend. Makes me feel better about all I'm going to have to cut. The story's going in new directions I never thought of, and its definitely better so that's good :o) Already making my agent querying list.

Thanks to everyone whose lurked or stopped by during the brief break from blogging. Say hi and come out of lurking if you want :o)

Mega congrats go out to Nell on her amazing 2 book sale and signing with an agent :o) Love to have a week like that! *g*

Anyways, how's your week going?

I totally feel like I'm on the hamster wheel, running as fast my legs can go and getting nowhere fast. Its like I'm drowning in workshops. I'm drowning trying to do the 70 Days of Sven/Fast Draft/Word War challenge whenever those go. And I'm zonking out.

Someone got a life preserver? (and odd that name isn't it?)

Anyhoo, the blog's might be spuratic for awhile. Its only the middle of the month and there's still some good chunks of workshop left. I have to print out my 54K (woohoo!) of Cruel Summer and take advantage of my revisions course. (And at least by the end of the high concept workshop, I should have a kick arse blurb!)

So what's driving you batty this month? C'mon, join in... I'll even share my Dr. Pepper and bbq chips with ya :o)

I have nothing really in mind for this post. So like Matt Hardy's rambling myspace blog at times, I'm just going to go with whatever comes into my mind in whatever order it comes in lol

The third workshop I'm taking this month starts off tomorrow. I'm not sure taking three in a month was the wisest idea I've ever had, but I'm trying to keep up. Learned a few things so far and am anxiously waiting to learn/create my roadmap for revision in the one workshop. I'm very tempted to take my few favorite scenes from VW and cut the rest and just rewrite from scratch. Might be crazy, might be a blessing in disguise or might just be the dumbest idea *g*
I did learn how to create a zen list and am thinking of making one to help me write/finish the brava idea. Could work...

Did my best to put Cruel Summer in order Friday night and somehow managed to lose 232 words. Don't know where they went. Thankfully I kept my rough draft that was totally out of order and spent two hours moving each scene to where I had it in the new draft. Don't know which 232 words went missing, don't really care that now that all are recovered :o) Just hope it doesn't happen again any time soon.

I did find it funny when I looked at the coming soon page in the book Olga sent me *thanks Olga!* Cruel Summer was one of the titles lol Guess its a more popular title than I thought.

I've decided I don't like cold weather in summer. Anything that's cold enough for me to break out the fleece is unnatural and should be banished until December.

The weekend's going slow but its finally warming up a little. Cut a bunch of cosmos yesterday for a vase in the house. Didn't have to reseed them this year, they came up from last year when I couldn't keep up with all the seeds. Actually looks really nice.

And finally, the book's I want to read right now - the new Stephenie Meyer; You Had Me At Halo; Sex and the Psychic Witch - Annette Blair; Wednesday Night Witches (waiting for this one to arrive in the mail *g* I get to review it!)

Hope everyone's having a nice and warm weekend :o)

Labels: ramble

Today's Thursday Thirteen brought to you by the letters H, O and T. :o)

Thirteen Heroes from my Stories/WIPS 1. From my current YA WIP - Cruel Summer, the perfect picture of my bad boy JT, none other than Pittsburgh Penguin Sidney Crosby 2. Jas McIntyre from Something To Talk About, Josh :o) This is the black and white one that soon as I saw it I knew I had Jas perfectly cast, esp. the hair! *g* 3. Josh Again, because he's still an unnamed character in DG. 4. Leo from Charmed was my Matt from Her Protector 5. The evil Dr. Will from Big Brother seasons 2 and 7 (my character isn't wearing the tiara lol) 6. Steve Burton, inspired a bit of Matt from HP as well :o) 8. Colin Farrell, probably the perfect bad boy to cast as Harley's opposition in High Stakes :o) 9. WWE wrestler Shawn Michaels, still haven't found the perfect character for him yet... 10. My hockey hero WIP, definitely has shades of Heath Ledger 11. Edge from WWE's inspired two cocky characters, another hockey player *lol* and a bit of the villian in DG 12. So Stone in DG was originally inspired by Nick Lachey, but I can't find the photos. But after getting into Mindfreak, he's sorta morphed a bit more into the Criss Angel look below... 13 Ingo from GH totally inspired the main villian in DG, Sebastian (name changes weekly lol) 1. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! 1. Savannah Chase 2. Gina Ardito 3. Jennifer Shirk 4. Lanie's Blog 5. Katy 6. Debbie 7. Elle Fredrix 8. Joely Sue Burkhart (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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

Quick reminder, DG is still up for voting @ www.contestjunkies.com

Labels: heroes, Thursday Thirteen

Thumbelina Zinnias, dwarf stocks and what were supposed to be mini english daisies (all from seed)

Two jumbo Zinnias amongst the sunflowers, cosmos, night scented stocks, scabiosa (seeded)

Other side of the circle flower bed, more Zinnas, night stocks, cosmos, sunflowers, scabiosa

(seeded)

African daisies, Cerinthe (love this flower!) and you can't see the some of the others in there but there's the ones that look like little mini snaps but aren't. (all seeded)

Labels: gardening

Can I just say symantec tech support is absolutely CLUELESS?? I emailed last night when it disconnected me from chat that I couldn't get my firewire/1394 to work, so obviously its the firewall. And they emailed me back and told me to get my internet connection back to simply TURN OFF my firewall. How stupid is Norton?? Answer - extremely.

On to better news, there is a rather nice entry up this week over at contest junkies if you like voting in writing contests. I always thought Stone was a cool name *wink*

AKA when the computer decides to go to @(#*$)

I'm aware my desktop is finickity. Its been that way in all of its 5 years. It lives on a metal desk, so I'm sure its even more picky about the cold then other comps. And since it rained this morning and still is, I figure it'll be cold and need a few minutes to warm up. (I will admit in winter, I throw a fleece blanket over it for almost an hour before booting it up)

So I flick it on finally and it boots (a miracle itself) when it decides to hang oh so prettily on windows is starting up...for 35 minutes. No blinkey lighty.

Nothing.

So I push the button and turn it off. Try again. Same thing. Turn back off. And proceed to rock the tower back and forth. Turn on, with f8 key pressed and go into safe mode (wow, a real miracle it bypassed the windows starting screen) and go into restore. Pick a day from middle of July and let it go.

All looks good until...

NORTON goes to pot. Its erroring this. Its erroring that. And it wants me to uninstall it. Er, not *(*#$( likely. So I go to the symantec website (all risky and with no internet protection...) and follow the little linkey the error messages keep giving me with the option to download the new version (2 ahead of mine...so I wonder what automatic updates been downloading the last few months if it hasn't been the new version)

So I download the new version and start installing it. Suddenly it wants to reboot after going thru the files. Sure go ahead. I sit back thinking finally I'll have my comp back...

and no, now it decides I don't have a subscription to updates and wants me to purchase one...

*hits head on desk*

Took twenty minutes to find product key, another half hour to figure out where to insert product key (I know where I was thinking, right up symantec's...) and now its reinstalled and scanning. I have the fun/horror of redoing the firewall later. I just hope it decides to recognize the laptop before next weekend.

Great way to kick start a long weekend eh?

Labels: computers

Thirteen Websites & Blogs I visit daily 1. Romance Divas 2. Nell's Blog 3. Writeminded blog (www.writemindedblog.com) 4. Writing Playground 5. The Good, The Bad and The Unread 6. The Midnight Hour (www.themidnighthour.net) 7. Jill Shalvis' Blog 8. Suzanne McMinn's Blog 9. Julie's Blog 10. Hockeybuzz.com - you knew there had to be hockey somewhere in there didn't you? 11. Bailey's blog 12. eharlequin.com 13. love is an exploding cigar 1. Links to other Thursday Thirteens! (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!)

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

Labels: Thursday Thirteen