Sunday, November 28, 2010

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING...even if I am a couple days late!

Finally got to settle down and rest after hosting that HUGE dinner. Still getting back into the swing of IE, though holiday eating is a lot easier with IE. Listen, when you're full, you're full, it doesn't matter what day it is. But in full disclosure, there are still too many yummy leftovers left over, including my son's mother-in-law's most excellent homemade tiramisu. (Hint: Laced with rum!)

Since yesterday we just hung around the house, relaxing, I was able to fit in a lot of work on my new WIP, which is a short romance story. I'll be zipping that off to a magazine, and then it's back to a paranormal novela that I started prior to Thanksgiving.

This is really my favorite time of year. Not only is there a lot of excitement in the air, but it's a time filled with family and reflection over the past year, plus expectations and plans for the new year.

Oh--and how do I get one of those nifty HP mini laptops? Any chance they'll dip down in price once the Christmas lights get put back in the attic?

Friday, November 19, 2010

Unique Writing Tool


Lately I've been published under another pen name, one that's separate from both Connie Keenan and Consuelo Vazquez, and just this week I really got energized. I don't know what it is, but there are two times a year that I get especially jazzed to get some coals in the fire, writing-wise, and the first is spring. There's something about spring--you know, the "young" season, the season when everything's new and sultry summer is right around the corner. That season's got a way of giving birth, so to speak, to new projects.

The second season is right now, at the end of the year. When everybody's reflecting on what they've done, I find myself making plans for the coming year.

That means this is also when I get those all-important writing tools ready. You know, things like a new calendar to keep track of deadlines...a case of Diet Pepsi, preferrably Cherry, for that fizzy caffeine kick needed for writing late into the night...a folder for story ideas and clippings that inspire me and I might need for research...extra notebooks and pens, because I'm an antique that still totes those things to work with me so that I can sit in my car at the park at lunchtime, getting some time with my WIP.

And most recently, a writiting mascot--my dog, Chi-Chi! Poor Cheech got roped into that one the other night. She was resting comfortably on the rocking chair in the bedroom where my hubby, her daddy, was watching Everybody Loves Raymond before falling asleep.

"Aren't you writing?" Bill asks me.

"Yep."

"But you came in for your dog?"

"Yep!"

Luckily, Chi-Chi is a natural born princess. She doesn't care where she can lounge out, just as long as she can curl up and nap. She happens to do that very regally, too. That was her extent of overseeing my writing that night. No biggie for her, but she made my job of telling a story a lot less lonely, just having her nearby on the daybed in my home office while I tinkered away at my desk (really a baker's rack that I've had for years. Kind of a stylish workspace--efficient, too!).

And having her there worked even better than a tall, frosty glass of Diet Cherry Pepsi!