Anyone else unhappy with Sela Ward’s character? I’m getting a vibe about her. She’s up to something. Not sure what yet but I don’t believe she’s a “good guy.” I guess we’ll see as the season progresses. Anyone else getting a vibe about her and her possible nefarious nature? There has to be a reason she left the FBI. Why give up a federal position for a NYPD crime lab job? Gotta be a story there and probably not a good one.
NY City from atop the Empire State Bldg
She sold her 1920s historical novel named Redemption for the Devil. It will come out in July 2011. Desert Breeze Publishing. It is a story about an Irish Catholic lass that falls for an Irish Protestant lad who happens to have a very bad past. Can her love redeem him? Can they get past the religious issue? You’ll have to read it to find out.
Last year was the first year I’d heard of NaNoWriMo. November is National Novel Writing Month. There’s a wicked cool web site that lets you track your progress as you try to write 50,000 words in the 30 days of November. This book my pen name and I sold was our NaNo book last year. We wrote it in 21 days as we had to travel down to Boca Raton for Thanksgiving and we knew there’d be no writing down there.
Recently, we added an additional 25,000 words to flesh out the story. The basic story was done November 21, 2009 but we edited in much more historical detail in the last month. Made it much richer and it sold. Yesterday.
Join me this November for the next round. My user name there is sfcatty. Friend me and we’ll journey together. It’s a blast. Check out the website: http://www.nanowrimo.org/
Virgina is for Lovers…. Of FALL!
I lived in Virginia and I miss the change in the seasons. Driving up Skyline Drive to get apple cider, pumpkins and gourds in the fall was such a blast. The weather was cool and the cider was icy cold. So cold it hurt going down even though it tasted heavenly. There’s nothing like fresh pressed apple cider.
The leaves crunching underfoot were magical and I can remember kicking them to make them fly and thinking there were fairies and gnomes in the woods. I never uncovered one but I probably made so much noise that they ran from me. I was a pretty rowdy kid.
The smell of fires burning along the route was a tingle in my nose and I loved to inhale the scent. It was an idyllic time and I miss the heck out of it.
10 Random things that make me happy with a special tribute to fall in honor ot Oct 1
Boots
I love to wear boots in the fall and winter. They’re comfy and keep my toes warm.
A roaring fire in the fireplace
There’s nothing like a cozy fire on a cool day. sitting by a fire is a fine way to spend a fall day
Petting my cat
She’s a long hair cat and likes to cuddle only when the weather is cool. It’s relaxing and soothing to run my hand over her fur and hear her purr.
Writing
Writing is something I MUST do. It is part of my soul and my psyche needs it.
reading fiction
Escaping to other worlds is something I enjoy. There’s nothing like a well written book to take me to away from my day to day life.
Red doors
They are beautiful and represent sanctuary.
bare limbed trees
Mysterious and sexy, bare limbed trees speak to my imagination. A haze or fog over such a tree appeals to me. Have no real idea why. It just does.
lunch time
A break from the work day is always a grand thing.
Watching Cary Grant movies
He was so awesome and funny and suave and a wonderful entertainer.
Fridays
DUH!
Started Ghost Night by Heather Graham on Sunday. So far so good. I do like the way she writes. Very captivating. This is another of the Bone Island Trilogy. I have read them in the wrong order and that’s ok, too. I know what happens to Bartholomew but I’m cool with that. LOL!
I won’t read any tonight or probably the rest of the week- inspiration has struck on the current WIP and I gotta type, type, type. I’m only posting here since I realized I’d had this blog on ignore the last fews days- since the short story writing fest on Saturday, the 25th.
Have not heard from the two publishers that I have shorts out on submission. I think they’re both cute stories. One has a deadline of the 30th of Sept. and the other of Oct 1. I am hopeful for yeses on both. One is a Thanksgiving mystery and the other is a ghost story. Tis the season.
I’m writing a short story about “the first time I…”
And I know what you’re thinking. Nope, it’s not about that at all. LOL!
Pagan holiday lover that I am, it’s about a haunted house and a sea captain. So there. 
Is it a cliche if I made it up myself?
It is really not a cliche in the truest sense, but my favorite cliche is one I made up myself. It is “life is tough and then you die.” I started out saying it to my children when they were little and complained about things that went wrong. It evolved from there to saying it to my staff. And from there, to the world at large.
Yesterday, one of the marshals at the courthouse said to me- “What is that thing you always say about life being tough and dying?” So, clearly, it’s the cliche of choice in my world.
The weirdest thing I ever ate (at least it was weird to me) was goat. I ate it in a small town in Mexico south of Corpus Christi Texas. A very long time ago. I do remember it quite well. It looked like steak and was very tasty. That is, until my father told me it was goat meat. UGH.
But, I’d eat it again. As an adult, I’m not as turned off by the idea as I was when I heard it as a kid. And in truth, it was quite good.
Got delayed in finishing reading this one. Had to go out of town to a conference and had no time to read. I know I was recommending this book when I first posted that I was reading it. I was throughly enjoying it. And now I’m mad.
I take back my recommendation of this book. Don’t get me wrong, the writing is excellent and the story line is intriguing – that I like. What makes me mad as a snake is that it is NOT a complete book. The book ends in the middle of the action. IN. THE. MiDDLE. OF. THE. ACTION. You have to buy the next book in the series to even get a conclusion to this book. Reminds me of the middle movie of the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy. That was what I call a “bridge” movie- you HAD to see movie # 3 to find out the end of movie #2. I, for one, refused and I still haven’t seen it.
I have to think that this is a marketing ploy to get people to buy the second book. I won’t do it. I refuse. I hate to be manipulated and that is exactly how I feel right now. Manipulated in a very bad way. When I buy a book, I want a conclusion. Now, don’t get me wrong, I want to be intrigued enough to buy a second in a series to see what happens next but I don’t want to be forced to buy a second book to get any conclusion at all.
There was also one scene near the end where I found myself hoping the author hadn’t gone for the cliché I’d expected to happen all along. I was proud that she hadn’t done it and then in the last 30 pages, she did. Bummer. Hated that she gave in to that impulse. Based on the creativiity in the earlier part of the book, I expected better of her.
So, even though I’ll probably get blasted for this. I have to say it – Don’t buy it- Just say no.
Ramblings of a Writer 