Fall Break

Here in Oklahoma our kids get a four day holiday the third week of October.

Technically they get five days because Wednesday is a teacher's inservice day.

We're going to Houston and Galveston.

Much of the first and last day we will be in the car driving with a teenage daughter, so I'll get to hear the famous question, "Are we there yet?" several times.

I hear Houston's traffic is a nightmare so if you don't hear from me again it will be because I am stuck on the Houston highways and can't get off.

It never fails, we always seem to be in the wrong lane when were trying to exit on a Texas highway. Then you have to go way out of your way to get back where you were trying to go in the first place.

We are going to visit the space center and go to the beach and look for hot guys. My daughter's words, not mine. I'll be keeping my eyes on my book, of course.

Last summer we went to South Padre Island and when we got home we cleaned sand for weeks. That stuff gets everywhere and it's sticky.

On the way back home, we were stopped several times to see if we were carrying illegal aliens.

One time I was asleep when we pulled up to a road block. No, I wasn't driving. The officer asked us what country we were from and I said Oklahoma. I'm not terribly intelligent when I first wake up.

Tequila

Stereotype

I'm a little embarrased to admit I just finished reading Kushiel's Dart.

It's about a girl who is basically a high paid prostitute, a scholar and a spy.

She has this body guard who carrys not one sword but two and looks something like this:




For some reason I have him pictured in my head as having dark hair and looking more like this:




Until she reminds me in her description that he has long blond hair and blue eyes.

For some reason I don't think of blond men as sword yeilding knights in shining armor. More of the bard type mayhaps.

He's part of an elite guard that is sworn to celibacy. Kind of like the eunachs who guard a harem only this fellow hasn't been castrated. I won't say whether he's able to keep this vow or not and ruin the story for you.

The main character is into sadomasochism in the recipient capacity.

No, I'm not into S & M and I had to skip over a few places.

Have you ever read a book that was disturbing yet you couldn't put it down? This one is like that. I found myself drawn into the story and curious about what was going to happen to the characters.

Kind of like a wreck on the highway. You shouldn't watch but for some reason you just have to.

I wasn't satisfied with the ending, but can only blaim myself for wasting time reading it.

Anyway, my point is, I have and maybe you do too, a picture fixed in my head of what certain people look like.

People always assume blond women are less intelligent than other women. I don't. I know some pretty intelligent blond women.

Now I don't think of blond men as simple minded but I do think of them as more artistic in nature.

Either way I wish the poor guy would have had a happier ending. :o)

NaNoWriMo

I have been busy and haven't blogged like I should. Where did September go?

Well, I am going to make myself clean and straighten my sewing/writing room and get my butt in gear.

Next month is NaNo and I will have to have my room ready for that.

For those of you who don't know what NaNoWriMo is it stands for National Novel Writing Month. You write a novel in a month.

You have to write approximately 1667 words a day, which adds up to 50000 words at the end of the month.

There are a few famous authors who participate in this. They use fake pen names so you don't know who they are.

Here's the web address if you want to check it out.

http://www.nanowrimo.org/

It sounds like a lot of work but it is also a lot of fun. You don't do any editing or polishing. Spelling and grammar errors don't count.

You just write and write and write.

Last year was my first year to participate and I loved it. I reached the 50000 word goal.

Did I do anything with the story? No. Will I? Maybe.

It has potential. Not one of my better pieces of work but I put words on paper and met my goal.

You have to get the words down to have something to edit. If you don't finish your story you don't have anything to edit.

Many writers are so busy going back over their work editing the few chapters they've written they never finish the story.

The know-it-alls say get the story down on paper/computer first and then edit.