| Your Power Color Is Lime Green |
 At Your Highest: You are adventurous, witty, and a visionary. At Your Lowest: You feel misunderstood, like you don't fit in. In Love: You have a tough exterior, but can be very dedicated. How You're Attractive: Your self-awareness and confidence lights up a room. Your Eternal Question: “What else do I need in my life?” |
Woe is me. It's one of those days. One of those days where you ask yourself if you're really supposed to be doing this and if it wouldn't just be better if you'd quit kidding yourself, deceiving your spouse, and go get a friggin job.
Critique has that power over me, and not because we actually did much critiquing last night. It was the stuff passed on by one of the members that Ann Peach had said to her. Stuff about the market for fiction, how it seems as if the things getting published are over the top ideas, the bigger and more over the top the better, etc. Paranormal is hot (which she'd already said and I'd already heard). I don't care for paranormal. Vampires don't excite me in the least. Ghosts and witches and all that? Not interested. So how could I possibly write about that? I can't, at least not until the idea of a lifetime strikes me and I have to write it. I did start a paranormal chick lit sort of thing, when an idea struck me that I loved, but there's not a demon or vampire anywhere in it. *sigh*
I love my stories when I'm working on them. They are wonderful and brilliant and the best thing ever written. And that's how it should be, I think. You should feel that way when you're caught up in an idea. (And no, I don't really think my stories are the best thing ever, just when I'm working and caught up in the process and in love with the characters; the honeymoon ends fairly quickly, ha!)
So what's a girl to do? Keep writing and hoping one of the ideas sticks to the wall in New York? Give up? (I'm just asking; don't intend to give up) Get depressed? Eat chocolate? Get off her ass and write that thesis because she's gonna need it to work when the writing thing doesn't pan out?
Oh, I am so wallowing this morning. But when I talked to the hubby last night after I got home, he had smart things to say. He said keep writing, don't try to write something you don't like or don't understand, trends come and go, things change, keep telling your stories your way because you have a voice and it comes through in what you write. He's a smart man, that guy. Now, I'm going to drink my coffee and wallow a bit in my own misery and think about how to toss a vampire into my story (not really, hee hee). 🙂
Currently Reading:
Still working on Kristin Hardy and the Princeton guys' The Rule of Four, and various other stuff. And though I said I don't care about paranormal stuff, sometimes a great premise comes along and you have to read it no matter what it's about. So, I could not resist buying Julie Kenner's Carpe Demon. If the title wasn't clever enough to pull me in, the cover, blurb, and smart-ass comments would have done it. I want to read it NOW. But, I need to finish a couple of other books first. Damn it.
Music:
Heard last night on the “Nights with Alice Cooper” show (as I was driving home): “That's the song ‘Bad Company', by Bad Company, off the album titled Bad Company. [dramatic pause] Very creative.” ROFL! Why does that amuse me? I don't know. I'm an easy laugh, I guess. Hubby pointed out that Alice appeared in one of those Wayne's World movies and was spouting brilliant stuff, so sedate, backstage while Wayne and Garth gaped. It's as if you expect this guy to be an idiot and yet you find a professor under the black eye makeup and long hair. Anyway, he amuses me in a smart-ass kind of way. You go, Alice!
It occurs to me, by reading other blogs and reading about how some folks are shooting themselves in the foot by blogging about employers, etc, that I should state for the record that all this blither-blather I type is simply my opinion and that I love a good debate and that I am easily persuaded to see the error of my ways, when I am in error. Ha! My employer, if I have one, is the DH, otherwise known as the darling hubby, the wonderful man who rocks my world and doesn't mind one tiny bit that I stay home all day working on books while he slaps on combat boots and goes out to defend the world each day (okay, so maybe duty in Hawaii isn't exactly defending the world, but hey). If I'm lucky enough to sell my stories, you can be sure I will have nothing but wonderful things to say about my employer, aka publisher, at least in a public forum such as this. I don't imagine every writer out there is happy with her publisher all the time, so I reserve the right to have a private snit should the time come. Ha!
Must get back to the book…..
Just read about the book deal Julie Powell, who cooked all of Julia Child's recipes in a year, got. Sheesh, why can't I think of stuff like this!? I remember the article in the NYT a couple of years ago when she was still cooking and blogging about it. Why don't these brilliant ideas strike me? Why can't I get a mega-bucks book deal for making recipes from Mastering the Art of French Cooking? Because I do have the book and I do cook from it, damn it. (Salad Nicoise is awesome, as is the crepe recipe.) Maybe I should dig into my cookbooks and copy Julie. Hmm, how about Cooking with Justin Wilson? No? What about Will Rogers' Oklahoma Cookbook?
Okay, maybe not. Sheesh.
In other news, I was reading Wanda Writer's post about turning 30 and I just wanted to say a couple of things. First, I enjoy the site. Second–hon, it's only 30. Trust me, from someone galloping toward the opposite end of that decade, 30 is no big whoop! And I'm sure you're young and gorgeous, no matter what you think. Don't sweat it, it'll all be fine, I'm sure. As for the stuff about Brad Pitt types falling in love with Gilda Radner types–well, I think women write that stuff because it's what women would do. Don't believe me? What about Sandra Bullock and Jesse James? She's gorgeous and he's, well, ahem, okay I guess. (Would you want to marry a guy whose last wife was a porn star? Not me! How can you possibly live up to how good she was in bed, no matter how rich and gorgeous you are?)
I absolutely adored SEP's Heaven, Texas, which is of course the ultimate gorgeous guy falling for plain woman book, at least in my opinion. (Yeah, I know Crusie's Bet Me also features such a deal, but I didn't care for that one nearly as much–probably because I was reading it when my kitty was near the end of her life, so it's not Jennifer's fault so much as mine.) Maybe it wouldn't really happen, at least not as often as romance writers write it, but I love that fantasy (ooh, Pierce Brosnan and his wife, Keely Shaye Smith! She's quite a bit chunky, though still lovely, while he is, well, James Bond). Even wrote my own version of it in the last novel, which is still languishing in 2nd draft mode while I tap out this Blaze. My heroine is a little weight challenged, and a lot confidence challenged, mostly because she has a gorgeous sister she compares herself to. The hero is, naturally, the most yummy of male confections, dressed in his Navy uniform and grumbling at every turn about this damn woman who's crashed (literally) into his life. Darn it, now I want to work on that book.
*sigh* And now I'm reminded that I need to get busy. Where's my handy kitchen timer? Don't tell me I put it back in the kitchen…….
1. I am not a bad writer.
2. I can and will finish this book.
3. I can and must and will write this blasted thesis, even if I am terrified of one of the readers (oh yes, got that signed contract back with mentor–adore him–and two readers, one I don't know and one who scares the pants off me).
4. Can't sell if you don't submit. Like duh! But I keep putting it off because I need to do just one more thing….
5. Running 2 miles is a pain in the butt. And legs. And lungs.
6. Men are silly–hubby just had to have new Nike Free shoes, even though he bought new running shoes two months ago. Nike Free shoes weigh like 4 ounces each and look something like a sock. It's a running shoe, though. It's supposed to be like running barefoot. The latest thing, apparently.
7. I need a maid. Not getting one though. First need an income.
8. My fat butt needs to get back to the gym. Pronto.
9. I have a terrible time getting back to work after the weekend. Must work through weekend from now on. Should be easy to do with hubby working on MBA. In theory, anyway.
10. Reading blogs is addictive. Must learn better time management skills.
