A dream comes true

Step 1: Write a book - check
Step 2: Get an agent - check
Step 3: Find a publisher - check

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have a publisher!

:)

Total Brilliance

I know, I know. The author cries all the way to the bank, but THIS is hilarious.

At this very moment on PlanetPooks

Pooks is having a contest for FREE BOOKS! All you need to do for a chance to win is subscribe to her blog and leave a comment. If you Twitter her post, you'll get a second chance to win. If you blog it, you'll get a third chance. You can get even more chances - read for details! What are you waiting for? Go visit PlanetPooks!

Saturdays are for browsing

Saturdays are for browsing in book stores.

Definitely blogworthy

A chair full of Iggys

Please don't buy Petland's puppy mill dogs

Petland still refuses to stop selling puppy mill dogs. Puppy mills are death houses for dogs! Canada has fired Petland. We should do it, too.

Italian Greyhounds like Halloween, too!

 

Deer Hunter and "Dear"

These Iggy costumes were made by the nice lady (and friend) HERE.

Wine cellar

This wine cellar is fantastic, but ...

books. I was thinking books.

Just for fun

Click anywhere on this naked men clock and it becomes digital.

Happy Birthday, John

Happy Birthday, John. He would have been 71 today. The picture shows the Imagine Peace Tower in Iceland, which is lit each year by his wife on his birthday. It shines until the 8th of December, the anniversary of his tragic death.

Prepare to be gobsmacked for 7-1/2 minutes

Perspective

When you hear about the Central Texas wildfires and see the film footage on TV of the firemen backlit by flames and smoke, you think, Wow, that's big! When you hear that the fires have burned an area the size of the state of Connecticut, you think, Wow, that's really big!

Now look at this. That's the City of Austin, with the capitol dome in the foreground.

 

Kind of puts it in perspective, doesn't it?!

I took this video yesterday at an Italian Greyhound playdate hosted by our friends, Connie and Tommy. The black and white Iggy is our Mr. Shad. It's wonderful to see this little guy running around and exploring all the great smells and enjoying just being a dog. We think he came from a puppy mill. It took years before his natural personality and behavior surfaced. He's a brave boy to learn to trust!

My MC is a curmudgeon

In the mystery novel I'm writing, I've changed the Main Character's age several times. He started out being a curmudgeon in his 50s, then in his mid-40s, then in his late 30s, but the question was, can you still be a curmudgeon before 50-something? (Is 50-something too young, maybe?) At what age does curmudgeonliness begin, anyway?

Now he's back in his 50s, and although that may not be the final age for him once the ms is sold (dreaming on,) it will be the correct one. Here's why. When I audited a writing class from my friend and mentor, the brilliant Pooks, she asked us to write journal entries for our characters. This is what I wrote for my MC wrote:

Hah! The only people who keep Journals are tea-sipping virgins and pretentious twits who mistake their thoughts for profundities. Dickbrains.

You see what I mean? Can you be that curmudgeonly in your 30s or 40s?

Hell no. 

Saving and reuniting pets with Texas owners

If you're on Facebook, check out THIS PAGE
for the lost and found pets rescued from the Texas wildfires.
They just added 37 new photos with lots of happy stories.

The wildfires have scorched an area in the middle of Texas the size of Connecticut. Yet amid all the chaos and heartbreak, these people thought about the pets and got organized. They coordinated with local veterinarians and shelters and social media to get the word out so pets get the care they need and a safe place to stay until their owners can find them and provide a home.

Our sofa is lumpy

How did this happen?

Last night

Hearing rain

And a far-away train

From my sleepytime bed

The 2011 Dallas heatwave broke 1980's record four days ago with a high of 107 F.
More than 70 days of 100-degree + temps.
Last night, it rained.

Book Porn

OMG, look at THIS, pages and pages of book porn!

Just a tasty tease:

In memoriam

Like fine wine

THIS is a pic to be savored. Go ahead, please do. I'll wait.

Now then, after you pick your jaw up from the floor, take a look at Johnny Depp's hand, draped over Keith Richards' shoulders. Notice anything odd? I don't mean the tat or the rings; I mean the length of his index finger compared to the length of his ring finger. (Yes, this is how my mind works.)

I knew I had read about this somewhere, so I did a Google search and found this:



What the Length of Your Index Finger Says About You.

According to the article, Depp would have a "Low 2D:4D ratio," (a shorter index finger than ring finger.) The low ratio can indicate musical ability, risk-taking, and people who are "sexually adventurous," as well as many other fascinating details.

Now we know how to read the label on fine wines.

View from my pillow

Simon sez, "Whatcha doin'?"

The Summer of Hell

Our time in hell is almost over! Today's high is supposed to be only 99 F. Next week, the morning lows will be in the 60s.

I'm so tired of warm tap water, crunchy brown grass, and having to deep-water trees so they won't fall over. One poor lady had a tree fall on her SUV and another tree fell on her house.

I'm looking forward to next week. I think the younger set will come out of their homes, dancing and rejoicing with wild abandon (probably nude, knowing these kids today.) I have my own plans. I'm going to sit on the patio, which I haven't been able to do all summer, and sip iced tea, slowly, because the ice cubes will still be there when all the tea is gone. And enjoy a little slice of heaven. Clothing optional.

Closet envy

There was a TV show on yesterday that featured a Dallas woman's two-story, Five Million Dollar closet.

It wasn't mine.

Big-girl steps

Step 1: Write a book  - check
Step 2: Get an agent  - check
Step 3: Find a publisher -

Ladies and gentlemen, I have an agent!
:)

Painting with words, and paint

Writers try to paint with words. We want readers to see the story scenes as they play out in our minds. Sometimes we come close. For some the process flows almost effortlessly. I'm not one of those. I struggle one word, one syllable, at a time until I have a paragraph that comes close to the picture in my mind.

This is one reason I'm so awed, not to mention envious, of people who can paint their pictures with paint. If I could do that, then I'd feel comfortable calling myself an artist. Yes, writing is an art, but can we call ourselves artists in the same sense? If so, then my art would have to be called art work, not artwork!

I have a couple of artist friends whose work I adore. One of these friends not only paints with paint, but also with words. Oh, if only......... !

Meet Robyn, and fall in love.

You're welcome.

When good books = good movies

Don'tcha love when that happens? You fall in love with a book, and then the movie comes out. You get that sinking feeling that they're gonna screw it up.

And then, a miracle occurs.

"It's as good as the book!" you exclaim, but not aloud in the theater of course because you are not one of those people. But if you're home watching Netflix with the hubs like I was last night, you do, you do!

You've probably read Stieg Larson's marvelous trilogy. People, all three movie adaptations (with English subtitles) are available on Netflix, and they are as good as the books.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

The Girl Who Played With Fire

The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest 

An American version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo is coming out in December. I have that sinking feeling.

But is it blogworthy?

Now that I've started a blog, from now on I will go through my days seeing, hearing and experiencing everything* with this question in mind:

But is it blogworthy?

If it is, I'll have something to blog about. If it isn't, I guess I'll have to make something up get a more interesting life.


* (okay, mostly everything! Grow up, what's the matter with you?)