Experience Changes Your View

Isn't it strange how new things make us look at the world differently? When I became self-employed as a roofer, my view of what manual labor changed, and certainly, my knowledge of tax laws and social security (because self-employment required a lot of keeping records) grew by leaps and bounds.

How many times have I walked into buildings and houses and never paid attention to rooflines and roofs before that? Gazillions. But my new career changed my life forever.  I never drive by houses and not look at roofs and the quality of work.  It's a part of my nature now.

When I became published, I started to look at book covers with new eyes, checking out placement of names and whether they were tin-foiled or not, whether the size of the font of the name takes up the whole book, and where they were shelved.  These were things I never really thought about before; all I did was write and all I really cared about was getting the story done.

The world of publishing and being published made me very aware of the money side of the book world, the good and bad, and the struggles and victories.  I learned what I always read about--that the writing isn't everything and that sometimes, the circumstances out of one's control could affect one's writing and career.

How many times have I walked by authors signing books in a corner of the mall book store? Dozens. Today, when I pass a table with a lonely author sitting behind a stack of books, I always make it a point to say hi and check out his/her books.  Why? Because I've been on that side and understand how it feels to sit there, all by oneself, smiling till one's face aches, with only the one or two people stopping by to ask for directions to the restroom.

How many times have I just ordered an author's book and not thought about his/her current publisher? Gazillions.  Now, when I browse books, I check the publisher, the imprint, things that don't matter to most readers.  I notice the changes and even if I stopped writing, it's part of my nature now.

Since late December, there's been an addition to my menagerie of mutants.  I've been taking care of an orphaned squirrel, which fell off a tree and too dehydrated to climb in, and being chased by a hawk who had been feasting on her siblings.  It has been an education, with a lot of prayers because I read about how hard it was to take care of a baby squirrel and the survival rate wasn't too hopeful.  Thankfully, MikiSquirrel is doing well and took a liking to sitting on my shoulder and head.

How many times have I walked under trees and not noticed the rustling sounds and the nuts crunching under my feet? Gazillions.  Not any more.  Now I see nuts and I think of squirrel food.  I actually look at the tree and catch sight of squirrels staring back, and I take note of what they were eating so I could collect some later for Miki.  For some reason, she still can't crack nuts open, so I spend time cracking acorns and other nuts so she could eat them.  I, who didn't even own a nutcracker ever in my old age.

These days, my friends and roofers laugh at me because I'm always scrounging around in the bushes looking for squirrel food.  I'm always looking up into the sky to make sure there aren't hawks around when I put Miki outside in the tree.  I've learned what Miki and squirrels do to stay alive.  One day, Miki might finally decide to venture back into the trees and I'll only of pictures of me and a squirrel on my head, but you know what? I'll always be looking up into leafy canopies, listening for squirrel chatter.  It's part of my nature now.

Do you have a similar story of an experience that has changed your life, that it too has become a part of you?

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Why Male Writers Kill Off The Hero's Love Interest

Two weeks ago, Jack Bauer finally had sex on 24 and yeah, his woman died not long after. That Jack, he is just the death sentence for his loves (wife, mole/lover, South American mistress--all dead). The only surviving one is blubbering Awwwdrey and no, we don't care about her. Never did.

Anyway, I'm always amused when I hear males talking about alpha males. Because in their minds, the Alpha Male always leaves their women behind in the end, or else the poor females die because of them.

In an interview, Howard Gordon, the exe. producer, spoke of Jack needing an emotional anchor and Renee was it, like a soul mate of sorts, and then bam! They decided to off her. When asked whether that was the correct decision, Gordon said he didn't know till his wife cried and then he knew that it was.

What the hell is wrong with male writers writing about romance? Tears of anguish = win???! The fact that they kept taking away every possible sliver of sunshine in this guy's life means the right decision? Why?

The funniest part of the interview, though, was very telling. On the subject of HOW LONG does Jack lasts in bed, well, obviously men AND women have the same romantic ideals:

I thought it was interesting that you cut away from Jack and Renee for two whole acts after they started making love. Did a lot of thought go into how long it takes Jack Bauer to make love to a woman?

GORDON: Oh absolutely. And, by the way, Jack and Renee were not by any means done. I think this was probably closer to Round 1. I mean, he was just getting a glass of water. So yes, we were very sensitive about it because it’s a very sensitive thing. We really wanted to do it as tastefully and virile-y as possible for a man like Jack Bauer.

Alpha males must be good in bed and also be ready for several rounds *evil grin*. Of course, in the men's head, the Alpha male cannot stay in contact too long with girl cooties because that might rob him of his super powers or something. I suppose, in their eyes, that's true because a fallen Alpha Male = domesticated, always stuck to one woman. For example, look at Jack when he was with Awwwdrey. He hung up his guns and chose to be a sort of a kept man because of his love for her; in short, his Jack Bauerness was leashed because of his feelings for her.

Awww.

Now you know why men sneer at romance. They're afraid. Love and commitment in their minds mean something entirely different from our female version. So, love, yes, but then the love interest must go, by hook or by crook.

So now you know why guy books never have happy endings. They

1) want to make women cry
2) are afraid of losing their masculinity and become boring
3) need an excuse to rampage ;-).

An amusing collection of wiki-facts for Jack Bauer Fans: http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Jack_Bauer_Facts

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Characters That Stand Out

Like most self-employed people, I'm deep in Taxes Doodoo at the moment. Did you know that the IRS has videos on YouTube?! I know, right...need help? Just go to Youtube...every darn thing there, including helpful hints from the IRS. I can't decide whether the Information Age is pervasive or invasive.

I'm loving all your thoughts about the hero/heroine characteristics from my previous post. Please continue to give me your opinions and ideas in the comment area. I'll write a more conclusive post about the topic once I'm out of the government paperwork. As it is, I think I'm going to have an awesome panel at RT!

Definitely, the name, James Bond, strikes a chord with people, fan or not. He's part of the cultural vernacular, an icon that stereotypes a certain ideal. Can you think of a couple of character names that have stuck around with us, be it from a romance book (or any other genre) or a TV show that brings instant recognition to people (or at least, fans of that genre)? Especially heroines. Off the top of my head, I have a few nominations:

Buffy
Count Dracula
Sherlock Holmes
Nancy Drew
Eve Dallas and Roarke
Dr. Who
Stephanie Plum
Jed McNeil Heh, heh, couldn't resist, sorry
Jack Bauer
Gidget and Moondoggy
Steve McGarrett
Wolf McKenzie (and his sons!)
Mr. Darcy
Heathcliffe

I threw out the above names to my roofers and crapenters and they recognize 80 percent of them. You guess it--they failed in the romance book dpt. (Wolf, Mr. Darcy) but hey, one actually knew who Jed McNeil was, LOL. That made me laugh. Very heartily. I called my bookseller friend up and she recognized all the names. We readers are such well-rounded people :-).

When I give the introduction to my panel discussion, I'll definitely mention a few of these names and maybe get a show of hands. That would certainly bring home to the attendees why memorable characters make a story, right?

Do you have any for me?

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The End Of A Series: Mostly Jack Bauer, Some TV, & A Tie-In About Romance Series

I love my post titles these days. It's as if my brain has decided that I need to cram every specific thing into them so I don't start meandering. As if I don't stay on topic or something. Pfft to my brain.

Most of you know I'm a die-hard Jack Bauer fan. It doesn't matter that the show has gotten a bit ridiculous (a bit? A BIT the size of India's population?!) but I still love him with the adoring love of a thousand almond creme cheese cake. It's not Jack Bauer that's gone wrong, you see. It's the writers for that show. He'd always be brilliant, angsty, crazy-tunnel vision, alpha, and overly efficient at killing people.

I started to wonder whether I feel the same about books that are series that follow a single/multiple characters? That I loved a character but hated the way the storyline went as the books continued? Loved the tone of the books, loved the voice, loved the characters, but somehow, when the series was done, I'm sort of relieved, not because my character's journey brought me great joy but that it was so heavy on a certain aspect of that it dragged my enjoyment down? Danny Valentine, your inability to give your lover a chance and your doubts really really REALLY ended that series by making me think you were wrong and stupid. And who wanted to end up with that opinion about the main character?

Or the series have gone so far off course that there is no recognizable thing between Book 1 and Book 111, except for the characters' names? Especially if it sort of changed genres in the middle too. Anita Blake, I'm looking at you.

Some people would read on to the bitter end, but I can't do that. I didn't do that to LOST, the TV series, because there were too many characters with too many storylines and not one solved mystery after two seasons. I couldn't do that with Anita Blake because the characters I've emotionally invested in changed into unrecognizable entities.

And yet, I hung on to Jack Bauer, season after season. There are plot holes galore in each season, with things happening that couldn't happen in the real world and in real time. 24 is called that because it follows an adventure through the course of a day, using a digital clock at the corner of the TV screen. It's a season-long fake reality show of following a CTU (Counter Terrorist Unit) operative as he goes around the a metropolis destroying lots of things and causing havoc while chasing terrorists with accents bent on destroying that city (and the U.S.).

There are nuclear blasts that don't affect Jack's health. Hell, Jack gets shot and he walks and talks in the next hour as if it were just a flesh wound. There are water passageways that lead under the White House. There are non-existent car tunnels in New York City by named streets. There are resurrected characters who were good guys one season and now turned bad, and no, they aren't zombies. And there's always a mole inside CTU that shows how stupid and incapable CTU is.

A book with a plot like the above would have been thrown across the room many a time. And yet, every Monday for the last eight or nine years (with the exception of personal stuff), I've turned on the show and cheered Jack Bauer on, as he continued his fight to "save the world," as we fans like to say.

So my conclusion is that it must be the character. I couldn't take Danny Valentine any more as she changed into a morose and doubting heroine who seemed to side with her enemies more than her lover. I couldn't take Anita Blake any more as she metamorphosized from Vampire Hunter to...umm...Monster Mistress (couldn't come up with a better name) and destroyed the special triangle of metaphysical power that was set up in the first ten books. I couldn't follow Lost when The Others become the focus, and not the core group of survivors.

Don't get me wrong. These books and shows are very good and have mega fans. I'm just picking them as examples of how I, the reader, reach a point where they don't fit me any more. Many people, on the other hand, have stopped watching 24. So it's all about what floats your boat.

I do have series that I've read/enjoyed and put away with a happy sigh when they're done and reread and rewatched through the years. Some that I'm reading now tthat I look forward to the next book:

1) Briggs' Mercedes Thompson series
2) Briggs' Alpha and Omega series
3) Andrews' Kate Daniel series
4) Robb's Eve Dallas (although I'm books behind on this one but this is one series always satisfies me)

As you can see, the examples are mostly urban fantasies. I can't think of a historical series that I'm reading. Brockmann's Team 16 books have character arcs that move the series along and her most famous one was Sam and Alyssa's storyline, which I followed along until the part where Sam was tricked by a turkey baster and in subsequent books, cried buckets and became a drunk. I did read his happy ending with Alyssa a few books later, though, so it's possible to skip parts of a series you don't like and just read the ending ;-).

TV shows: Babylon 5 comes to mind. A brilliant, brilliant five year-arc that had me riveted till today. Every SF show since pales in comparison. Except maybe La Femme Nikita, but it wasn't SF and its ending was an abomination. I did follow Alias and X-Files to the bitter, bitter, incomprehensible end, and maybe that's why I avoid JJ Abrams, who also produces/writes Lost, now. I just don't trust him any more.

The latest TV show that riveted me was Dollhouse and despite its flaws, its storyline was tantalizing and my Whedon love knows no bound, even though his endings never make me happy.

So. I'm thinking that my rules with character arcs are funky. You can write stupid but don't make the protagonist turn stupid. You can have plot holes, but make sure he doesn't make a 180 and turn into something he isn't (except for one episode, by magic, and resolved very soon!) Most of all, don't set me up with a promise that so and so will end up together and then end the series with them getting on with Other Loves. That is like turning Jack Bauer into a coward and have him save himself over others at the end of the show (please, TV gods, don't give the writers of 24 this idea because they'll think they're being damn clever and every fan will hunt them down and shoot their thighs).

What series, books or TV show, are you following? Are you happy with how it's going? And has there been a series that you've dropped because you just couldn't take it any more? Was it the plot or character?

Lots of questions, I know, but I'm always curious about my readers' internal rules about story-telling.

Also, who's going to save the world now that Jack Bauer is going off the air? Sob*

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AVATAR: Does The Story Sound Familiar?

This was circulated around the Twitter Chatters. Funny.



Wish Virtually One is coming along this easily ;-).

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Bet You've Never Read About This Were/Shifter!

I was googling and researching for a "cute" sidekick for my (urban fantasy pseudo-satire) Viking Dude heroine (demon slayer). Cute with a little bit of magic, I thought. Hmm. Shifter abilities? Okay, of course. Maybe give him an Asian background? Why not? Something embarassing about him to be revealed later? Oh yeah, that sounds like fun.

Muse was having a bit of fun with me.

Then I found the entry on the Japanese TANUKI, a rodent-dog shapeshifter with humongous balls. Cute and sidekickish, yes! So I googled some more, looking at pictures and already playing with plotlines and jokes.

Then I saw this Japanese commercial below, a KIDDIE commercial. Wait for the ending. Wow. I don't remember this in my version of Red Riding Hood ;-). You'd think the big bad wolf might have changed his menu after seeing that!

All she said was "Wow." Wow?!

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You Know You're Watching A Horror Movie When...

1) the girl goes down into the basement alone. In her flimsy nightie. Calling out, "Hello? Anyone down there?"

2) the car breaks down in the dark countryside and the boyfriend sees a light far off and tells the girl to stay in the car all by herself while he goes for help.

3) some kid in a mask starts coming after other kids. With a chainsaw.

4) a nice normal family moves into a dilapidated house with 500 rooms that still have strange looking pictures and other people's things everywhere.

5) the new girl in town wakes up to find a vampire boy staring obsessively at her while she sleeps. And he glitters.

6) when, for fun, the slumber party girls take out an ouija board. And the camera changes to Someone Else's POV.

7) when a doll so demonic-looking no child would own starts talking. And he sounds like a late-night talk host on drugs. And he can kill even though he's just 14 inches high.

8) when the archaeologist has been warned that whatever he's digging up is holy/sacred/cursed. And then eyes gleamed out of the mask/mummified body. Or the thing moved. And there's always a landslide at the end.

9) when a group of travelers--usually young and adventurous--go to visit the Forbidden Place--usually a cemetery or an abandoned town--and then rotting things with bloodied limbs and faroff gazes start hobbling after them. And the camera starts going all shaky.

10) the creepy caretaker--nurse/butler/maid--becomes more and more sinister till she turns stark crazy and cut off the guy's foot to make sure he can't get out of bed.

Any other creepy movie tropes you'd like to add?

Happy Halloweenie ;-D.

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Internet Denizens aka Cyber Flame Warriors

Courtesy of Mrs. Giggles.

Are you a Flame Warrior? Or maybe you recognize some of these during the killing sprees on the Intertubes?

I want to be a Kungfu Master!

"Though Kung-Fu Masters are powerful Warriors, they generally choose not to fight. Many lesser Warriors delude themselves into thinking that they are masters of war, but few are the genuine article. The true Kung-Fu master fully appreciates his own superiority and is therefore unruffled by petty provocations. When forced to fight, however, he quickly crushes his opponent with devastating blows."

Yeah. Or maybe, YEEE-AH!

Anyway, going through the list was an amusing morning endeavor. I recognized many of these denizens, esp. Cyber Sister, Bliss Ninny, Filibuster, and, Godzilla. Very, very apt and funny ;-). Now I also aspire to be Big Cat.

I wonder whether people realize what they seem like to others when they participate in a flame war?

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Visiting Other Worlds

Had a wonderful time last night. It's good to meet new people who write and read our kind of books. My panel was outstanding--Linda S. Cowden, Kimberly Raiser, Yyvonne Wisdom were great, giving lots of insight about the urban fantasy heroine (specifically, Anita Blake, Sookie, Bella) and whether they were role models or good girls gone bad.

I think I was probably the only author on board who didn't write vampires, LOL, but hey, I'm definitely a fan of the genre and have read my share of vampire romances, so I didn't mind having a little discussion fun. I played devil's advocate and went for "good girls gone bad" against the girl empowerment standard. It was fun because I got to talk about enlightening topics such as "the reduction of the female role to being a magic hoohah," which drew some laughter from the mostly male audience.

It was fun precisely because of the male readers in the audience. They were attentive and some of them had insightful observations about the series they read, mostly the Anita Blake one. Do you hear that, writers? They have INSIGHT, which means they read the books and continued reading them even as the romantic elements are expanded. I loved it. I mentioned some series that they might want to try--not necc. vampire series but since we were talking about tough chicks who could be either role models or bad girls--such as Saintcrow's Danny Valentine series, Iona Andrews' Magic series, and even J.R. Ward's bad ass Brothuhs ;-) as the extreme example of "protected" females.

At the end of the panel, a male reviewer came forward to ask for my book. A radio station wants to do an interview. Several male readers came up to ask me whether I was at RT because they were there during the Book Fair and now they've found a new author--me--because they like spy/thriller romances. That's what I was talking about, folks. A chance to get new readers who don't necessarily classify themselves as romance readers. A chance to network with reviewers and talk radio interviewers who I'd never meet if I hadn't gone outside the box and promote at different CONs. A few of these readers have even read Virtually His because of John Scalzi's recommendation last year. I was totally wowed by this. And gratified. This is what I want, to bring my stories to all kinds of readers who aren't necessarily "romance" readers but are just after a good story.

Now...I'm off to check out the panel about military SF and how to write great battle scenes. Then I want to meet John Ringo. And where else could a writer get to ask questions face-to-face with a scientist from NASA on one side and a Star Trek writer on the other? I'm just so psyched!

Later, dudes, may the force stop the rain.

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Clearly Zombie Ants Are Attacking Me

Because I'm getting more and more paranoid, that's why.

See, now I find that they're creating SUICIDAL RATS with another kind of parasite. These rats, they think teasing cats and thumbing their noses at them are cool. These rats, they stand in front of cats and dare them with "EAT ME!" signs. These rats, they go all emo.

Clearly, zombie ants with exploding heads aren't enough to amuse the scientists. According to another article, these parasites are present in our brains and can be activated when our immune system is compromised. Oh, such great fodder for my Virtual series. You know it's all going to be there--taunting, suicidal zombies--in Virtually One. It's all in the serum, you know. ;-P

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One Of Those Days When Zombies Sounded Good

I'm in a horrible mood, so pardon the sulky post. The week has finally descended into my coming home at 8.30pm to find my air-conditioner flooding my garage floor. I almost wept from the frustration.

Gah. I foresee a hot sticky night ahead since the repairman can't come till morning, and I'm still wondering how to let him do his job when I need to be off to my job by 6am. Double Gah.

I promised my editor to read Virtually His and Hers back-to-back so I can answer a few of her concerns and I haven't been able to carve out a block of time to do this. Computer problems. Working overtime at the roof from hell. Bills and unexpected home improvement projects kept interrupting. A frustrated woman here.

I did hear something on the radio that gave me a grin, though. Did you know they've found a parasite that can infect the fire ant and make them into ZOMBIES? They basically forget to look for food, march around like zombies till their heads fall off. And you think zombies invading our urban fantasies/paranormals were just weird things popping up in an author's imagination.

Of course, this particular author starts to think up about how this parasitic can be changed into a chemical idea to be used in the super soldier-spy series. Can you imagine, an army of zombies created specifically for one thing, and then their heads fall off. A little gruesome, I know, but it's been that kind of week. I deserve to kill people in my head. Bunches, in fact.

The idea does have a fascinating hold on me, though, because the more cynical of us know the government likes to experiment on people, even their soldiers, don't we? Hmm. Virtually Zombie. Hmm.

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My Day At The Beach

If you ever watched The Amazing Race, you'd know about the usual tasks and roadblocks. Contestants sometimes are asked to climb incredible heights and then cross planks to get to another location.

Well, guess what I did today. Yup. Five stories in the air. You know those ladders you see in the circus, the ones that the trapeze artistes use to get to their swings? They go straight up, up, up and it takes them forever to reach their seats way, way up there?

Uh huh. That's how I felt today. Trapeze artiste extraordinaire. Except that I had a hard hat and a tool belt on. Then I walked across these planks in mid-air (with no balancing umbrella). I also leaned over a lot. I discovered that climbing down was a lot more difficult than climbing up because I had to look DOWN. You know, bungee jumping doesn't look so scary after all.

You know this adventure is going to be in a commando scene in a future book. And the heroine would look a lot cooler than my dusty, paint-speckled (there were painters spraying the floors as I climbed up), grimy and windblown state today, for sure.

Lisa, didn't you try to bribe me with a foot massage for a read of Virtually Hers? Your offer sounds more and more tempting everyday.

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How Do You Do It?

How do those of you with daily long commute do it? Gimme your secret. Because four hours plua a day spent on the road is surely sucking all the lively brain cells away. By the end of the day, it's just the couch, the TV, the furbabies, the couch, the food, the couch, the attempt to write, which is pitiful, and finally, bedtime.

I know many of you do it, riding subways or driving through snarling DC-like traffic, to get to work. I just want to know--how do you do it and keep your mental sanity? ;-P It doesn't matter if I nap all the way to my destination, I still feel like I'm running on empty by the end of the day and trying to create words and form ideas into stories is a constant challenge. I know I have to work through this and probably, like when I was younger, my body will adjust, but right now, friends, the body hates me ;-).

One more complaint. Ever since joining Facebook, I'm getting spammed like whoa. I was wondering whether you Facebook members have the same problem. If this is so, I'm going to have to create a fake email address for that particular site to fight against email harvesters. That's the bad thing about these huge popular sites; there be scum trolls.

As you can tell, I'm in that bitchin' state of mind. So TGIF, eh? Except that it's going to be in the lower 20s again...argh...hate dawn....Did you know that I actually had to de-ice my windshield this morning? Whaddup with that? This is Florida. No one owns a windshield scraper!

This thread is now open to your rant. What in the world is bothering you, my friends? Bitch away. You have my permission.

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Lounging Around

No, didn't do any hot air ballooning today. Dawn was so freaking crazy cold! I couldn't believe how nasty it was. Can you imagine how much colder it would be floating up there? Brrr. So we snuggled deeper inside our blankets and fell right back to sleep, LOL.

"Not for a giant bag of hot air," he whispered in my ear. "Dawn sucks. Ignore and go back to bed."

Totally agreed. A giant bag of hot air and cold, blustery dawn just weren't appealing when one is warm and toasty, so I obediently went back to lalaland. My mom used to call me Sleeping Beauty because I could sleep the morning away. I'm more a sunset sort of girl, I guess.

What is your internal clock like? In sync with normal time or not?

***************

My assistant surprised me by setting up a Facebook page for me! So now that she's given me the reins, come play? Friend me? It has a neat "what I'm up to now" Twitter feature. Everyone is updating all day. Wow. Do you guys like Facebook better than MySpace?

***************

BBW sales update. I sold 50 books this week. Thank you, everyone, for spreading the word around that BBW is available at Amazon or buying an extra to give to your local UBS. I've received some emails from surprised booksellers because of your generosity, telling me they didn't know I have a new book. I've set up a Paypal account for to handle bulk and overseas orders. Don't I sound like I have a business going on now? :::grin:::

Lastly, lots of emails asking about that novella idea, asking whether it would be $11, etc. No, I base the price of the book with how much it'd cost me with the printing and cover pic costs, etc. A shorter book, like a novella, would probably run closer to $8. Can't say since I haven't checked that yet. Boy, you guys have been great with the suggestions ;-). Steve and Marlena's honeymoon, someone emailed. Nikki's pregnancy and Rick's possessiveness, another chimed in. Hawk giving Jazz a hard time when he found out how mad Jazz was when Vivi finally revealed her trickery. These are great ideas! Keep them coming, here on the blog or through email.

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Sometimes They Walk Out Of A Book

Welcome to the three column GLow monster ;-). I'll be moving links and stuff around for better eye/space coordination. Hopefully, when I'm done, this place will look more functional, letting readers look at my books at one side and my more personal quirky collection of stuff on the other. That's the plan, anyway, but I'm by nature a messy person, so I have a feeling the end product is just going to be all frenetic and crazy like me.

If you have any suggestions or if you know how to move that pic to the middle, feel free to post. Because I need all the help I can get when it comes to computers and arranging things.

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Talking about quirky characters, I have one that is definitely going into my book of character sketches one day. This man is in his mid-fifties, I think, and talks slowly, like a Florida cracker (good ole boy). He wears a suit and tie. He drives a James Bond Beamer, you know, the one in the movies. He has a high-paying job/he might own (not sure) a steel factory.

Now, if you meet someone like this, what would be your expectations/assumptions? In the usual book of character sketches, you might imagine him perhaps a Southern gentleman, maybe grown up poor and is now making big bucks, and he'd have women in his life. You would definitely peg him down as someone who owns a nice house, right?

Well. Suppose you go to his residence and it's this Very Dilapidated house? The roof is so old, it's probably the original shingles, but you can't tell because there are only crumbles of what used to be a roof left. HOLES gape at the sunlight and rain, holes left unattended for so long, the surrounding plywood sheathing are warped and gnarled by the elements. Water has been pouring into this house for years.

And this is only THE FRONT SIDE of the house. The back is covered by plastic sheets, like what you see after a hurricane, except there hasn't been a hurricane in these parts for a few years. The plastic looks old and moldy. On removal, you find another layer of tar paper tacked on top of two other layers of tar paper. Then, after removing that, you find big pieces of plywood nailed on top of the shingles. It seems, as the years went by, the owner of the house has just kept putting on layers of "protection" to stop the leaks.

The roof is so bad, in fact, in a year or two, removal of shingles wouldn't have been neccessary. All you needed to do was climb up there, avoid the holes, and SWEEP the remaining shingle granules off.

Yes, you guess it. This is my current job. RB and I replaced so many pieces of sheathing that we might as well have rebuilt a whole roof deck for this place. At one point, we took out so many of them, we could look inside the house, which HAD SEVERAL big holes in the ceiling because, obviously, the roof has been leaking for years. There is a dog in the house, wandering from room to room and sleeping in the insulation that fell from the "attic." He just stares up at us everyday.

At one point, we found a nest of ants living in the wet decaying wood. RB told me to go into the garage and look for some insect-killer. When I got back, I reported: "Umm. There's nothing in the garage except for stinky clothes and a bottle of Armor All." I had to crack up at that because the Armor All was all about character.

At the end of the first day, the owner came home from work. Parked his shiny Beamer right beside the dilapidated home.

He looked up and asked, "How ya doin'?"

RB said, "Looks like it might rain tonight. We won't be able to replace all the plywood."

"That's okay. I'm used to a little water in the house."

I almost fell off the roof. Now, THAT, is character study.

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Post #2: Visiting Another Blog

Today, I posted about the free ebook, Big Bad Wolf, at Four Ladies Reading. If you want to read about HOW I received the spy mojo, click on the link and read how my first manuscript sucked canal water. Go on. Go laugh at my Berserker Warrior Woman Meets Navy SEAL Wannabe.

Also, Casee from The Book Binge also very kindly wrote about my plight with the delayed VIRTUALLY HERS. She wanted more readers to help me out and I really appreciate it. I can't express my gratitude that so many readers have been so generous with their time--writing letters, talking about it on their blogs, and recommending my books new to their friends. I feel truly, truly humbled by your love and kindness. Thank you for being here for me. I hope and pray that your efforts (and my agent's!) will make our wish come true, that VIRTUALLY HERS will be given a slot by my publisher and will be published soon. Is it too unprofessional to say that it sucks to be in limbo like this?

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A Note From Last Night's Chat

During chat last night, a few readers expressed surprise that the song referred to at the end of The Protector, when Jazz sang to Vivi during their engagement, was the Beatles' "In My Life." A few even told me they never listened to the Beatles, so the references I made in that last scene flew over their heads.

Well, I couldn't actually quote the song because I didn't have the $$$ to pay Mr. Michael Jackson ;-). So that's why I wrote it the way I did. But for those who had NEVER heard the song, here is a cover played by the great Dave Matthews. The slowed-down guitar version is the way I imagined Jazz sang the song because you know, they were celebrating his engagement while at the same time thinking about the possible death of his best friend, Hawk, who had gone missing while under assignment in Macedonia.

Hope this helps to make that final scene more poignant to y'all.



Also, this is one of my favorite Beatles songs. The melody itself always tugs at my emotions.

Any thoughts, esp. if you've read The Protector.

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A Writer's Time Machine

A box arrived at my door this past weekend. It was from my sister, who'd recently made a trip home to Malaysia. Once open, on top was a packet of "heong pieng," one of my favorite Chinese chewy "cookies," for lack of a better term. Yay. Below that, some batik clothing that my sister knew I like to wear for sleeping. Goodie. My other ones were getting soft and old. Then, lastly, underneath, something odd--a bulky bunch of yellowed sheets of ancient paper. Huh?

I pulled the pile out and went through them. My mouth slowly fell open. Math homework in preparation for my MCE (O Levels) exams. Letters. Bible study course. A poem. Oh. My. God. I flipped through the papers, looking at my name and dates.

1977. 1978. My very extremely neat handwriting stared back at me. I put aside the math homework. The letters called to me more.

I opened the first two. They were from a penpal who lived in Texas. For thirty years I've forgotten about him. He was a few years older and wrote about electronics and working on a calculator. We used to write pages and pages to each other, me happily practicing my English and he wanting to learn more about people. He asked me for advice (ME!) and I must have happily dispensed them like any cheerfully wise teenager with lots of crazy ideas in her head because in another letter, he thanked and agreed with my suggestions. LOL. Something about telling him to go out more and meeting people. Like I would know, since I was about the most sheltered girl in Malaysia at that time. I turned over his picture and laughed at the sight of a young man with 70s hair. Yes, I remember this photo. I must have told him I wanted to be a writer because he also mentioned that.

I opened the next letter. It was from a boy. Huh, I didn't recognize the name. "My sweet darling," it said. My mouth dropped open again. My sweet darling?! I checked the name again and I still didn't recognize it! It was a letter to me, with many endearments, with questions and comments that revealed his knowledge of my school, things I did for fun, and books I read. This boy was my sweetheart and I couldn't for the life of me remember him! How is this possible? For thirty years, I had believed my first boyfriend was the young man I dated and with whom I went to college, but now this letter from my past is mocking my memory (hanging my head in shame). I still can't recall anything about this boy who called me his "sweet darling." What did he look like? How did we meet? Did he just disappear from my life or did I break up with him? Is it even possible to entirely forget one person who was supposed to be so special (still hanging my head in shame here)?

Then, there was the poem. It was very long. It was very romantic. It was very scary. And. It. Was dedicated to Donny Osmond. AHAHAHAHHAHAHA! Now my love for Donny, I remember. I wanted to marry him ;-). I take it back--Donny was the first love of my life. And every time I see him on Youtube and on TV I still grin back fondly.

So remembering two out of three ain't so bad, right? :-)

Like all the unexpected things in my life, the time machine came as an answer. All month, I've been struggling with an urban fantasy proposal, about a time-traveling (of sorts) Viking. It has been an excruciating experience because I'm a pantser and am now, for the first time ever, trying to plot. I've been world building and ripping those worlds apart, over and over, not satisfied with the conflict and the story arc. I can see my character, Mr. Viking Dude, so clearly, and it was frustrating to have to hold his actions back because I needed to view his world more clearly. Time traveling is part of it, but this isn't your momma's old time travel tale. No, no, no, I didn't want the going through a stony column in Scotland. No touching an old brooch in an old hotel for my Viking Dude in my urban fantasy. No waking up in the body of someone else in the past.

I don't know whether time travel is a real thing or not, but somehow, I've managed to sent an answer to myself thirty years ago and it arrived this weekend. Here, in this pile of old letters that arrived, were solutions to my writer's block. A mystery that my Viking must solve. A quest, in fact, locked within letters from strangers who were friends. And of course, a love letter that he couldn't remember ;-).

Now, I just need to put all these ingredients together to get it right.

I'm just totally fascinated by the "timing" of this!

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Things To Do This Weekend

Think EXTRAORDINARY! Because I can't do this:





I'll have to stick to other kinds of creative outlets ;-). I'll be struggling, like Deirdre Martin here....




Hmm...I wonder whether wearing a pair of cowboy boots would get the creative juices flowing.

But I need more inspiration. I'm writing a sexy tortured hero with a warped sense of humor. Hmm. Who better than...



Oh yeah. He's as tall as a Viking. A bit on the nutty side. And he can wield a sword. Yes!

So, what do you think?

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Things About Europe RB Didn't Like

1) The sausages taste funny

2) You can kill an enemy with the bread (okay, he concedes that might be fun)

3) The coffee cup is the size of a sip and he is a 100 sip man, used to Shit and Grits generous refills. There is NO refills in Portugal, France and Spain. He figures, if he drinks as much coffee there as he does back home, he'd have used up $1000 at $3.50 a sip.

4) Nobody understands his French (which he doesn't speak, LOL).

5) Exchange rate: US$2 = EU$1.05 back (ouch).

6) Small, Medium, Large, so easy. WTF is 35, 36, 37...48? (He was probably buying gifts for his girls. It's amazing how numbered sizes confuse a male).

7) Too many museums on too many hills (oh man, talk about serendipity. He snuck on a Viking/medieval/King Leonidas of 300 helmet-mask while I was struggling with my time-traveling Viking back home here! Must remember to try to get that pic from him to scan....)

8) The roofs were way, way, way up there and he couldn't inspect them while being mashed in a reveling crowd of thousands ;-).

You know, listening to him, it occurred to me that an essentially time-traveling Viking, even on some magic quest, would be quite vocal about the different foods he encounter. So, besides checking out the ladies, he would be eating quite a lot. You see how I get my ideas?

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