A Monster Good Time
by on January 19th, 2010
filed under Undecided
Sometimes you get the opportunity to do something you never dreamed you’d actually want to do.
Last Saturday night I took Monkey Boy to Monster Jam at Angel Stadium. What’s Monster Jam, you ask?
That’s okay, I asked the same thing the night before paying $12 to park my car, scurrying past drunken tailgaters, hiking up 4 stories of ramps and peering down on an crudely elaborate dirt track.
Monster Jam is a monster truck race and freestyle event. You might have heard of Grave Digger, heck even I’d heard of that monster truck driven by Chad Tingler.
I wasn’t sure what to expect, but as I looked around at the sea of monster truck fans I realized this sport attracts a lot of families, from grandparent to toddlers. Monkey Boy was so excited he kept saying, “I’m so turned on right now!” I swear I have no idea where he heard that, but I was grateful for the ear splitting blast of the mufflerless nitro engines that drowned him out. After a brief talk about how he’d used the wrong word to express himself without having to explain why it was wrong, we settled down to enjoy the show.
I have no idea how they scored it, but Blue Thunder won the race and Grave Digger won the Freestyle (which apparently involves lots of crushing cars, flying off dirt ramps, doing donuts and generally putting your life at risk.)
One truck flipped twice, Madusa (not a misspell- she’s mad & wears old red, white & blue) flashed her distended red white & blue bikini top 3 times, 3 trucks popped a tire including Grave Digger during his winning freestyle run and Monkey Boy begged for $10 pizza 3 times, $5 cotton candy twice and $7 ice cream once.
In the end he got a $20 Grave Digger t-shirt (What can I say? He wore me down.). And we both left the stadium wishing we could be driving home in a monster truck.
Death Is Not For the Faint of Heart
by on July 21st, 2009
filed under Undecided
Last weekend I attended The Romance Writers of America annual national convention in Washington DC. It was soooo much fun and so very tiring.
Some of my favorite workshops were Donald Maas, Jenny Cruisie and my most fav was called Mauled Men, Drowned Dames & Crispy Critters. When I told my roommates I was attending this workshop they all crinkled up their noses and shook their heads. You see it was all about how a body gets dead and what happens to it afterward.
Did you know that embalming fluid is tinted to match the color of blood so that the skin has (ehem) a healthy glow to it? And that once a body has been embalmed it becomes totally stiff so the funeral attendant has to block the arms, legs and head in position before embalming begins.
Did you know that when a body is autopsied and the organs are removed they are never put back into the body, but are incinerated as medical waste including the brain?
Did you know that your body becomes your next of kin’s personal property to do with what they want even if you’ve stipulated a certain type of preparation and burial and have paid for it in advance?
Did you know that caskets are sealed in a cement grave liner that makes it nearly impossible to rob a grave without heavy machinery like a back hoe?
Did you know that if you have a military funeral that your body becomes the property of the US military?
I won’t get into how a funeral attendant prepares the body when there’s been an unfortunate incident that not only caused the person’s death but also damaged it in a major way. Let’s just say it involves wax, high collars and a really good make up artist.
See now you’re squinching up your nose and shaking your head.
Me & Janet BFF's forever
by on July 17th, 2009
filed under Undecided
Aaaaahhhhhhh!!!!!!!
That’s me totally geeking out over meeting and having my pic taken with Janet Evanovich.
Now, you have to understand I don’t get geeked out by celebrities.
At all.
Ever.
And I’ve met some biggies. But when I met Janet (I can call her Janet because we are BFF’s now 
) I nearly turned into Sanjaya’s crying girl (click here to refresh your American Idol memory) .
I started writing after reading Janet’s Stephanie Plum books, so really it’s aaaaaall her fault. I don’t and couldn’t compare my style to hers, but she made me feel like I could write. She made me want to write. She made me realize my ‘voice’, my style.
So thanks Janet, for the picture, for being lovely and gracious, for writing hi-lar-ious books and for giving this nearing middle-aged (*gasp*) woman from The OC a new dream.
They Grow Them Big in Alaska-Cajones That Is
by on July 13th, 2009
filed under Undecided, Well that's what I think any way...
I took a moment to enjoy a little TV in bed this morning and switched on The Today Show. I don’t even know why I watch it, Ann Curry drives me up a wall when she interviews people. She takes brown-nosing to new heights (anyone see her Cannes interview with Brad Pitt? Horr-i-fic.).
This morning she interviewed Levi Johnston. Who the bleep is Levi Johnston you ask? He’s the 19 year-old who turned a teenage tumble in the backseat with Bristol Palin and her subsequent pregnancy into a career for himself. And some brilliant Today Show producer thought him newsworthy and knowledgeable enough to fly him all the way from Alaska to give his take on why Sarah Palin quit as governor of Alaska.
Really, the guy who let himself be used as a politcal tool and paraded across stage at the Republican convention waving and smiling is an expert on politics now? The guy who went along with a fake engagement for some national TV face time turning it into a photo shoot for GQ and an acting gig is suddenly a politcal pundit?
Okay, I’ve been pretty vocal about my feelings about Sarah Palin and it’s no secret that I think she’s the female version of George Bush only not as beady-eyed and sneaky, but no one deserves to have the snot nosed kid who knocked up your daughter go on national TV and criticize your judgement and decisions.
Really Levi? You want to judge the woman who is finacially and physically supporting your son and your baby-mama? You want to talk about money grubbing and using people for your own gain? You want to talk about motives, self-aggrandizement and ambition? Really?
Really.
Walking on the Moon
by on June 25th, 2009
filed under Undecided
Many things can be said about Michael Jackson, not all of it good. But, in his heyday there was no one better. I remember buying the record (yeah vinyl!)Thriller at Kmart. I also bought Duran Duran’s Seven & the Ragged Tiger at the same time. I dont’ know why I remember this so well. Maybe in some oddly prophetic moment this memory was burned into my brain. Listening to the album I knew this record would be HUGE. When Michael Jackson sang Billie Jean at Motown’s 25th anniversary special he did the moonwalk and the crowd gasped.
Watch it now and remember him when he was at his best, before he became a characiture of himself, before the allegations of child molestation and before he nearly dropped his son off a balcony. Appreciate his brilliance, his innovation, his talent this one last time.
Make Love Not War
by on June 22nd, 2009
filed under Undecided
There has been much discussion online lately regarding the benefits of authors being published traditionally (in hardback or paperback) or being e-published (full length novels & novellas available for download in various formats for various devices). From what I understand either choice has its advantages and disadvantages.
Now before I continue, I want to make it clear that I know absolutely nothing about the publishing business. I am not published in either format. I am not affiliated with any publisher. But I have been watching and listening to both sides of the debate between RWA’s (Romance Writers of America-one of the largest writers organizations in the US) President Diane Pershing and the many e-pub’d members of RWA. And it’s getting heated.
Oh, boy is it ever.
RWA has set rules and guidelines about how the organization grants PAN (Published Authors Network) status and the qualifications to enter their prestigious contests- The Golden Heart for un-pub’d authors and the Rita for published authors. Unfortunately those rules and guidelines have left some e-pub’d authors unable to qualify for any of these RWA benefits and they are crying foul. In a big way.
Earlier this week Literary Agent and author Deidre Knight wrote a letter addressed to Diane Pershing the president of RWA (linked here)on The Electronic & Small Press Author’s Network (an RWA special interest chapter) calling for a change in the rules and guidelines thus allowing e-pub’d authors to take advantage of the full range of benefits offered by RWA. She goes on further to say that RWA’s stance on this subject creates a feeling of elitism and alienation and that the rules and guidelines were designed by RWA to exclude a growing sector of their membership (I’m paraphrasing here, please forgive me if I’ve misinterpreted).
Diane Pershing responded a few days later (linked here) restating RWA’s position and reasoning that RWA’s rules and guidelines were designed to benefit the majority of the organization’s 10,000 plus membership. She went on to explain how RWA protects its members similar to the way SAG protects actors and their potential earnings by setting standards for RWA approved publishers based on how those publishers pay advances and royalties to their authors.
I wanted to also include an article written by Kassia Krozser (linked here)on Quartet Press (an upstart romance e-publisher) in which she offers suggestions and solutions on how RWA & its e-pub’d authors can walk hand and hand into the sunset and live happily ever after (okay not really but she does have some excellent suggestions!).
The articles I’ve listed are just a few of the many, hundreds, maybe even thousands of opinions on the subject. I hope you take the time and read them and any others you can get your hot little hands on.
As always, and since this is my blog, I get to give my opinion which you can either take or leave especially in light of my admitted lack of knowledge and experience in this area.
I have been a member of RWA for a year and a half. I am a PRO (an unpub’d author who has completed a novel and been granted this RWA distinction) most of what I have learned about the industry I have learned from RWA. Last year I attended the national convention and the PRO retreat at the convention, but didn’t stay for the session on e-publishing. Maybe I should have, but e-publishing hasn’t been my goal.
I have friends who are traditionally published and friends who are e-published. Both seem pleased with their individual publishing choices. I have always seen RWA as both educator and protector, looking out for the interest of their membership whether published or not. I understand their stance on this issue and I appreciate it.
I also understand the points the e-published authors are trying to make and I imagine if I were them or e-publishing was my goal, I would be standing with them on these issues.
What I don’t understand are those who are willing to quit RWA over these issues. Change is made from within, not from without. And I am reminded of Ghandi’s quote- ‘Be the change you want to see in the world.’ I was pleased to see that Ms. Knight sent out a message asking for cooler heads to prevail and for those who have said they would quit RWA to not do so but to stay and take part in bringing about change.
And I would ask the same, please stay and lend your knowledge, experience and insight. RWA needs you, I need you to teach, to guide and to enlighten. Just because e-publishing isn’t my goal now, doesn’t mean it won’t ever be.
I would also ask RWA to continue to educate and protect your members especially us neophytes. Protect us from unscrupulous publishers & agents. Educate us on every aspect of the publishing industry so that we may make the best, most knowledgeable decisions about our careers. And please find some way to include every one of your members in either the Golden Heart contest or the Rita contest as this seems to be, in my humble opinion, the simplest way to bridge one of the gaps between the two sides. Can you give a little on this one point, please?
Let me know your thoughts on these issues and most importantly of all, if you are a member of RWA, let them know your thoughts as well. An organization is only as strong as its membership.
I'd appreciate some in-site
by on June 18th, 2009
filed under Undecided
I’m going to the RWA National convention in Washington DC in a few weeks so I’m making up new business cards.
I want them to be professional, informative and well, cool looking.
They need to have all of my pertinent info including my pages on Myspace, Twitter, Facebook and this blog. But I’m thinking it’s time for a ‘real’ website, one that is easy to update and links to my blog. So I’ve put in a call for help, actually I’ve emailed 2 people who may be able to help. I hope. Because while I’ve done well with this blog (I designed it myself-What do you think?), it’s time I move on the the next step.
So, I want those of you with websites to give me some advice. What did you wish you knew going in? What would you do different? If you designed it yourself, how easy was it? What would you change about it?
Things I've come to appreciate more and more the older I get
by on June 14th, 2009
filed under Undecided
The other night DH and I went out to dinner with the family for Auntie’s birthday. Picture a swanky, dimly lit, leather boothed, steak house with photos of old movie stars and 112 kinds of martinis on the menu. Okay, maybe not 112, but there were an unusually large number of martini choices. You get the idea.
We got to chatting about birthdays and getting older and after much It’s better than the alternative we started naming things we appreciate now that we are ‘of an age’.
Here’s the list-
A good pair of tweezers
Boredom/nothing to do
Spanx (the ladies will get this one)
A comfy chair
The TV remote control
Modern medicine
24 hour TV-for when we can’t sleep
Friends & family
Car navigation systems
A good pair of glasses
Air conditioning
Birthdays
What have you developed an appreciation for?
Perfect in our imperfection
by on June 11th, 2009
filed under Undecided
I don’t consider myself a catty person and this blog post is by no means meant to change that. But a few months ago I posted a blog entry about Megan Fox being named the sexiest woman in the world by FHM magazine (Wait, hold your rolling eyes & “who cares” until I’m done.) At the time I wrote about how incredibly skinny the actress is and expressed my concerns as to why they chose Megan Fox of all people as the sexiest woman… in the world.
This week I had to feel bad for the poor emaciated girl because the big 
news is that tragic little Megan Fox has a thumb deformity called brachydactyly or ‘club thumb’. Yeah, seriously this is a stop everything moment and immediately Google Megan Fox thumb. Or at least it was for the Hollywood gossip shows.
So she has a ‘deformity’, lots of us do. My right knee has a large bump just below my knee cap from having Osgood Schlatter as a child. #1 son has a small scar from plastic surgery to repair his unilateral cleft lip (so does Stacy Keech, Cheech Marin & Joaquin Phoenix), DH has a birthmark on his scalp where the hair grows in white and Monkey Boy’s second toe is longer than his big one.
Big whoop.
Maybe it’s time to rethink the word deformity and perhaps adjust our opinion that only perfection equates to beauty.
So tell me… What is your flaw, your deformity? Come on, everyone has at least one…
Hard or Soft?
by on April 24th, 2009
filed under Undecided
No, you dirty minded things, I’m talking about hard or soft covered books. Yesh!
With all of the rearranging and upheaval in the publishing world somethings never change like the weight and feel of a hard cover novel or the portability and afordability of a paperback book.
Fewer and fewer new books are being published in hard cover, the cost is just too high. I know a few authors who have never had a book published in hard cover.
Inexpensive books bound in paper have existed since at least the 19th century and exist in a number of formats that have specific names, such as pamphlets, cheap editions, yellowbacks, dime novels and airport novels. Today most paperbacks are called either “mass-market paperback” or “trade paperback”. From Wikipedia
Downloadable book purchases are on the rise with the invention of e-book readers, iphone apps,computers and ipods. Many love that one device can hold thousands of books, not to mention the ‘green’ benefits of these devices.
But there’s something magical about a hardcover book. Hardcovers are generally associated with profound literary works and at one time it was fashionable to remove the book cover with it’s back of the book blurb, cover art and author photo. Again giving the image of profound literary taste.
I love the bulk of a hardcover book, it feels like a treat. What do you think? Hard or soft?
