Teri Brown Writes!

Letter From my Muse

2010-11-17T12:47:00.000-08:00

Dear Teri,
I hereby give you permission to suck. If the last 12,000 words of this book are awkward, stupid and just plain bad, it's okay, cause you can fix them. If you wrote 1000 words a day, you would be DONE in 12 days. DONE. So get on it.
Sincerely,
Your totally under appreciated and under utilized muse

Proof Positive that Good Happens and Multiplies

2010-10-12T05:41:00.000-07:00

Well bless my boots! The Class of 2k10 is giving away a load of books and said I helped spur the idea. Check it out here.

From an email:

As a part of our 10-10-10 Giveaway, the Class of 2k10 is offering a mega lot of books to US libraries, book clubs, etc. Here are the details....feel free to forward:

Press Release

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Announcing the Classof2K10 230-Books Giveaway

The Class of 2K10, a group of 23 debut middle grade and young adult authors, is banding together to help nonprofit book clubs obtain brand new, hot off the presses books for their reading groups. This gigantic 230-book giveaway will begin on October 10th, 2010, to mark 10-10-10 for the Class of 2K10. It will end on November 11, 2010.

The idea was spurred by author and blogger Teri Brown, who runs a book club at a low-income community center. Ms. Brown asked to be contacted by authors willing to donate 8 to 10 copies of their book, adding that she knows it can be a challenge, but that the girls in her club love their book club and “want more than anything to have it continue this year.”

“It can be difficult for authors to manage multiple copies on their own,” Leah Cypess, author of Mistwood and a member of the Class of 2K10, said. “We felt this was something unique we could offer as a group.”

Five book clubs around the country can win a prize pack of three to six sets of books written by authors from the Class of 2K10. The pack includes TEN copies of each book, and in some packs one of the books will be signed by the author.

The contest is open to all book clubs in the continental US associated with a nonprofit institution, a school, or a library. To enter, book club members or organizers need only comment on the giveaway post at the Classof2K10 blog (http://community.livejournal.com/classof2k10).

CONTACT: Leah Cypess at LCypess@gmail.com.

The prize packs are:

Middle Grade Fantasy Pack: (1) The Carnival of Lost Souls by Laura Quimby, (2) Under The Green Hill by Laura L. Sullivan, (3) The Witchy Worries of Abbie Adams by Rhonda Hayter

Middle Grade Realistic Pack: (1) Fairview Felines: A Newspaper Mystery by Michele Corriel, (2) Island Sting by Bonnie J. Doerr, (3) Leaving Gee's Bend by Irene Latham, (4) The Reinvention of Edison Thomas by Jacqueline Houtman, (5) Shooting Kabul by N.H. Senzai

Young Adult Fantasy/Paranormal Pack #1: (1) 13 to Life by Shannon Delany, (2) Freaksville by Kitty Keswick, (3) Mistwood by Leah Cypess, (4) Past Midnight by Mara Purnhagen, (5) Shade by Jeri Smith-Ready, (6) Under My Skin by Judith Graves

Young Adult Realistic Pack #1: (1) Change of Heart by Shari Maurer, (2) Faithful by Janet Fox, (3) Losing Faith by Denise Jaden, (4) The Tension of Opposites by Kristina McBride
Young Adult Realistic Pack #2: (1) Of All the Stupid Things by Alexandra Diaz, (2) Party by Tom Leveen, (3) Three Rivers Rising by Jame Richards, (4) The Secret Year by Jennifer Hubbard, (5) Split by Swati Avasthi

New and Improved

2010-09-02T20:50:00.001-07:00

Or not.

One gets to a certain point when they realize they are who they are and that's okay.

It's kind of nice.

Not that we shouldn't grow as human beings, but I think some issues are just there to stay.

But I CAN improve my writing. Craft can be worked on, nurtured and fed. And that is what I am doing right now. And I am loving it.

Remember to follow me on facebook and twitter... it's easier to keep up with than a blog;-)

More Shameless Begging

2010-08-19T08:14:00.000-07:00

I am re-posting part of this from last year, because I am begging for the same thing:) BOOKS, people, Books!

As most of you know,(I've mentioned it enough!), I run a book club for teen and tween girls at a low income community center. Actually, it's a low income housing project and the community center is located at the apartments. Many of the residents are transitioning out of homelessness or other bad situations. The center is a meeting place that provides after school and summer programs for the kids, parenting classes, and meetings for those who had had alcohol or chemical dependencies. It truly is a place that fights generational poverty on all levels. You can check it out at www.cpahinc.com.

There are eight hardcore members in the book club (and a couple who show up intermittently) who love their book club and want more than anything to have it continue this year. For that I need some very special authors who are willing to give of their books. There is NO money to buy books. I had a fabulous list of authors and books last year! All sent books, some came to visit, others made a vlog and sent gifts. Out of the eight members who attended faithfully, I had three who were already readers. Now I have eight! That is HUGE!!!!The connection with the authors is key. I need that again this year! If you are an author or are someone willing to help out, please contact me. Remember, I need eight to ten of the same book and that can be a challenge!

new note: I have two girls who are old enough to join this year and are so excited! So I would say I need ten books a month. Please contact me at diddymon (at)verizon (dot)net.

Drowning in Words

2010-07-02T06:59:00.001-07:00

Greetings bloggerites,

What have I been doing since I last blogged? I've been on Facebook, (Teri Foreman Brown) Twitter, (Teribrownwrites) and working. I've also been writing. And wording. Wording you ask? Yep, playing with words. Creating designs from them, writing poetry, and looking up random words in the thesaurus. Wording.

I was also supposed to be running, but am not doing so much of that. No, I've been to busy having a mini nervous breakdown. What else do you call it when you are drowning in words to the point where you dream about them? Not sure if this is a good thing and I'm about to make some sort of creative breakthrough, or if I'm simply crazy. Hard to tell at this point:)

Lots of things going on in my real life. My mom is no longer driving, so I'm doing most of that. My fantabulous job has ended for the summer, so I am back working at Community Partners for Affordable Housing for the next couple of weeks. My son finally got a job and went from being home 24/7 to being gone ten or more hours a day. My daughter continues to be a delight, as does my husband.

But on the interior... oh, my interior is messy. A hoarders home of words and thoughts and emotions which have no words. My interior is rife with murder and mayhem, people with names and those with no names, and the heart breaking reality of unrequited love.

You know, normal writers stuff.

Until next time,
Teri

An Important Piece by Tim Wise

2010-04-26T06:47:00.000-07:00

"Imagine if the Tea Party Was Black" - Tim Wise

Let’s play a game, shall we? The name of the game is called “Imagine.” The way it’s played is simple: we’ll envision recent happenings in the news, but then change them up a bit. Instead of envisioning white people as the main actors in the scenes we’ll conjure - the ones who are driving the action - we’ll envision black folks or other people of color instead. The object of the game is to imagine the public reaction to the events or incidents, if the main actors were of color, rather than white. Whoever gains the most insight into the workings of race in America, at the end of the game, wins.

So let’s begin.

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protester — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose.

Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionary mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington.

Imagine that a rap artist were to say, in reference to a white president: “He’s a piece of shit and I told him to suck on my machine gun.” Because that’s what rocker Ted Nugent said recently about President Obama.

Imagine that a prominent mainstream black political commentator had long employed an overt bigot as Executive Director of his organization, and that this bigot regularly participated in black separatist conferences, and once assaulted a white person while calling them by a racial slur. When that prominent black commentator and his sister — who also works for the organization — defended the bigot as a good guy who was misunderstood and “going through a tough time in his life” would anyone accept their excuse-making? Would that commentator still have a place on a mainstream network? Because that’s what happened in the real world, when Pat Buchanan employed as Executive Director of his group, America’s Cause, a blatant racist who did all these things, or at least their white equivalents: attending white separatist conferences and attacking a black woman while calling her the n-word.

Imagine that a black radio host were to suggest that the only way to get promoted in the administration of a white president is by “hating black people,” or that a prominent white person had only endorsed a white presidential candidate as an act of racial bonding, or blamed a white president for a fight on a school bus in which a black kid was jumped by two white kids, or said that he wouldn’t want to kill all conservatives, but rather, would like to leave just enough—“living fossils” as he called them—“so we will never forget what these people stood for.” After all, these are things that Rush Limbaugh has said, about Barack Obama’s administration, Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama, a fight on a school bus in Belleville, Illinois in which two black kids beat up a white kid, and about liberals, generally.

Imagine that a black pastor, formerly a member of the U.S. military, were to declare, as part of his opposition to a white president’s policies, that he was ready to “suit up, get my gun, go to Washington, and do what they trained me to do.” This is, after all, what Pastor Stan Craig said recently at a Tea Party rally in Greenville, South Carolina.

Imagine a black radio talk show host gleefully predicting a revolution by people of color if the government continues to be dominated by the rich white men who have been “destroying” the country, or if said radio personality were to call Christians or Jews non-humans, or say that when it came to conservatives, the best solution would be to “hang ‘em high.” And what would happen to any congressional representative who praised that commentator for “speaking common sense” and likened his hate talk to “American values?” After all, those are among the things said by radio host and best-selling author Michael Savage, predicting white revolution in the face of multiculturalism, or said by Savage about Muslims and liberals, respectively. And it was Congressman Culbertson, from Texas, who praised Savage in that way, despite his hateful rhetoric.

Imagine a black political commentator suggesting that the only thing the guy who flew his plane into the Austin, Texas IRS building did wrong was not blowing up Fox News instead. This is, after all, what Anne Coulter said about Tim McVeigh, when she noted that his only mistake was not blowing up the New York Times.

Imagine that a popular black liberal website posted comments about the daughter of a white president, calling her “typical redneck trash,” or a “whore” whose mother entertains her by “making monkey sounds.” After all that’s comparable to what conservatives posted about Malia Obama on freerepublic.com last year, when they referred to her as “ghetto trash.”

Imagine that black protesters at a large political rally were walking around with signs calling for the lynching of their congressional enemies. Because that’s what white conservatives did last year, in reference to Democratic party leaders in Congress.

In other words, imagine that even one-third of the anger and vitriol currently being hurled at President Obama, by folks who are almost exclusively white, were being aimed, instead, at a white president, by people of color. How many whites viewing the anger, the hatred, the contempt for that white president would then wax eloquent about free speech, and the glories of democracy? And how many would be calling for further crackdowns on thuggish behavior, and investigations into the radical agendas of those same people of color?

To ask any of these questions is to answer them. Protest is only seen as fundamentally American when those who have long had the luxury of seeing themselves as prototypically American engage in it. When the dangerous and dark “other” does so, however, it isn’t viewed as normal or natural, let alone patriotic. Which is why Rush Limbaugh could say, this past week, that the Tea Parties are the first time since the Civil War that ordinary, common Americans stood up for their rights: a statement that erases the normalcy and “American-ness” of blacks in the civil rights struggle, not to mention women in the fight for suffrage and equality, working people in the fight for better working conditions, and LGBT folks as they struggle to be treated as full and equal human beings.

And this, my friends, is what white privilege is all about. The ability to threaten others, to engage in violent and incendiary rhetoric without consequence, to be viewed as patriotic and normal no matter what you do, and never to be feared and despised as people of color would be, if they tried to get away with half the shit we do, on a daily basis.

Game Over.

So I Tried to Write Poetry...

2010-04-25T05:04:00.000-07:00

And it didn't turn out too badly. Granted, I will never be, nor do I want to be, a poet, but it felt good to stretch my creative muscles. Especially since I am now on chapter seven of kick ass, major overhauling, revisions. I am very, very pleased with how this book is shaping up. I just sent the six chapter proposal off to my agent. I hope she loves it as much as I do.

Oh, did I mention? I'm now the Rose City Romance Writers Published Authors Liaison. Not sure what all that entails, but I'm learning! And it's good to give back to a chapter that has been so good to me.

I'm training for a half marathon... It's coming along... slowly. I'm seriously out of shape, but I think I'll be ready as long as I'm consistent in my training. Which as anyone who knows me can attest, consistency is pretty much my downfall in anything.

Okay, off to get ready to write... I'm meeting a friend to write later and need to upload everything to Google docs:)

Gratitude

2010-04-20T07:24:00.000-07:00

Just a few things I'm grateful for:

1. Family
2. Friends (Even if I never get to see them)
3. Employment. (All four people in our family are employed!)
4. My writing (Whether it's going good or ill, I still love doing it!)
5. My running (Even if I can't run far or fast, I have the ability to run!)
6. My Husband, who dropped everything he was doing on his one day off to go help a stranded friend.
7. My agent, who still believes in me.

What's New

2010-04-01T07:19:00.000-07:00

Egads, it's been six weeks since I updated. What? I guess like many other people, I found that coming up with 140 characters, or whatever it is on Twitter is much easier than thinking and constructing an entire blog. I have also found the status updates on Facebook to be easier, as well. So you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook. Dangit. I don't know how to direct you to my facebook. Damn these techie learning curves!

In other news, my son has a job. After many months of unemployment, he is now working 10 hours a day which means many hours of quiet for me. Oh, yeah, I am no longer working at Penneys. SO FREAKING HAPPY. I didn't mind the work or the people, but being there at 5am was insane. My teaching job is going great. Love it.

About my writing? Digging deeper and deeper...this concept is so big, I want to do it justice. Been thinking a lot about creativity and how it's connected throughout the arts. How to harness it and make it work for you. Anyway, a discussion better left for over a bottle (or two ) of vino:)

See you on twitter. Will add my facebook url as soon as I figure it out!

Valentines Day

2010-02-15T10:19:00.000-08:00

Okay, this blog isn't just about Valentine's Day, though it could be. Not sure because I haven't finished it yet and I did win a Writing the Breakout Novel by Donald Maass, at my chapter meeting, which I am pretty ecstatic over, but right now, I want to talk about my wonderfully romantic weekend.

My husband and I left on Saturday afternoon and our goal was to spend the night in Garibaldi, a small fishing village on Tillamook Bay.

Unfortunately, there was no room at the Inn and we ended up back in Tillamook, which was fine because the hotel was cheap, clean and perfect for the evening's festivities. Which included fine wine, (for me) beer, (for husband) and the Olympics. It also included tons and tons of laughter, which we haven't had nearly enough of as of late. We woke up the next morning and took a walk in old town Tillamook and then headed up the coast around Tillamook Bay and all points North.

We did wine tasting and bought a bottle of Wine at the Great Northern Garlic Company in Manzanita and then stopped here at the Nehalem Bay Winery for more wine tasting:

Ken Kesey used to come here and once stopped with the Merry Pranksters. The winery hosts blues festivals and other such fun and frolic and I can't wait to go back!

We Tried to stop at Seaside, but it's such a tourist trap, we couldn't find a place to park, so we got the heck out of Dodge and went on to Astoria. LOVE Astoria. Astoria is where the movies Goonies was filmed and is such a fun place to hang out.

There are houses like these on almost every residential street.

We tripped around downtown and had some fabulous clam chowder at Steve and Larrys Cafe. The Cheese bread there is very, very special. Then we left the coast and traveled home by way of HWY 30 on the Columbia river where I came up with the new terms, "decor by deliverance" and "Meth much?" It was still fun:)

Incredibly romantic and lots of hand holding. We needed that trip!

tat

2010-01-30T16:48:00.001-08:00

I Haven't Forgotten!

2010-01-28T06:08:00.000-08:00

I haven't forgotten I have a blog. Nor have I forgotten that I should update...but I did say I've changed my attitude and apparently that means not being online as much as I used to. I'm not even twittering as much!

Last time I posted I wasn't sure how this new attitude was going to affect my life and writing. It's been good. Very good.

I am taking my health seriously again, which in turn has given me new energy. Remember my nonprofit idea? My book club for girls at the low income community center? My wonderful teaching job at Common Ground Extended Care? My writing? All of that takes energy and when my health isn't optimum, neither is my energy.

I took a 2 day Margie Lawson deep edits class that blew my mind. Several times. I have the high concept idea and her workshop gave me the tools to take my writing to places it hasn't been before. So excited! I've also signed up for Bob Mayer's Warrior Writer Workshop in February.

And...I'm getting a tattoo!I have already made the appointment and chosen my design. It's absolutely gorgeous and I will take a pix when it's done. Basically, the design will remind me everyday, of who I am.

So onward! And I promise I won't wait another month to blog:)

A New Attitude for 2010

2010-01-03T12:02:00.000-08:00

As most of you know, it's been a long time since I sold my first (and only) fiction book. Three years to be exact. There are any number of reasons why I haven't sold again. I switched agents during that time. I lost my editor, twice. My new agent had to take eight months off for medical reasons... the very day she was going out with my new work.

But when it comes right down to it, I just haven't gotten the right book into the right editor's hands at the right time.

And I'm concerned because in some ways selling has become my focus. Rejections sting more, whereas I used to take them in stride. I'm suffering from professional envy more than I used to, even with people I care about and am truly happy for.

Writing is a business, so it's good for me to be concerned about selling, especially when I want to write for a living. That's my goal, so selling is key, but it isn't everything. I've lost sight of the fact that writing is also my art, my passion, and my calling.

I'm out of balance, out of whack, whatever you want to call it. I feel it in the way I read Publisher Market Place. I feel it in the way I write or don't write. I don't feel the same confidence in myself as a writer and that affects the way I interact with fellow writers, editors and other industry professionals.

So this year, I'm going to focus on myself as an artist--as a writer. I'm going to focus on words, on craft, on seeking out inspiration, on nourishing my inner artist. My new focus doesn't mean I'm going to stop my agent from submitting, or that I'm going to run away to a Tibetan monastery to write in peace and solitude, (though doesn't that sound kind of nice? LOL) But my blog may be different. I may blog about my journey, or I may blog only intermittently. I'm not sure how it's going to look, but I do have a couple things in mind:

1. I won't be attending any conferences this year, only craft workshops and writer's retreats. My RWA chapter has a few good ones coming up that I'm looking forward to. I also plan on putting together a writer's retreat on the Oregon Coast for anyone who is interested.

2.A reevaluation of my goals every few months. I need to keep my finger on my creative pulse to see how I am doing. Keeping in mind I also want to start a non profit and run a marathon this year, I need to keep all my passions in balance.

3. Read or reread some good inspirational books. I love Natalie Goldberg's, Thunder and Lightening. Anyone else have any suggestions?

Last year I wanted MORE

2009-12-31T07:24:00.000-08:00

This year I want LESS.

Less bullshit.
Less procrastination.
Less stress, for sure!
(One less job would be great!)
Less self indulgence.

Time to prioritize, reshuffle, re-evaluate, redo.

Other than meeting Rosanna Braccioforte, my boss and new best friend, 2009 was a bit of a disappointment.

So time to trim down, cut the deadwood, and wake up. Time is limited.

Take less for granted.
Worry less
Envy less
Doubt myself less
Waste less time
Consume less
Spend less

I can only have more if I first balance it out with less.

A Facial a Day

2009-12-27T22:47:00.000-08:00

My surgery went fine and am now on the road to recovery. I can't do a whole lot still so I am writing, organizing and giving myself a facial a day. Why?

I dunno. It's something to do.

Plus I had my birthday and I feel like my skin is in pretty good condition for my age, so I wanted to reward it after years of neglect. Here's what I have done so far:

My Orgins clay mask. I started out with this since I had some left over. It's always nice, but I know I can't spend that kind of money for everyday, so I decided to go the homemade route. So then I tried...

Olive oil and sugar. Mostly because I had the ingredients! My daughter has a facial brush and I used that. You mix equal amounts of evoo and plain sugar and apply to the face. I lightly scrubbed my face with the brush and rinsed with warm water. then I washed my face. My face felt nice and clean and moisturized. The weird thing is when I went to put on make up later that day, I had big rolls of dead skin coming off on my foundation sponge. GROSS! Obviously, I need to exfoliate more.

So today I used the Miracle Whip mask. Basically, you put a think layer of Miracle Whip on your face, let it dry and then massage it off. The product picks up all the dead skin as it rolls up in little rubbery balls. So disgusting, but my skin felt fabulous after I washed it.

Tomorrow I am going to try the avocado mask. Take half an avocado and mash it add a couple of tablespoons of evoo. Chill. Apply to the face, wait 15 minutes and then wash off. (I think I'll eat the other half in a salad.)

After that I'm going to make up an antioxidant/antiwrinkle mask from on tablespoon of fresh orange juice and 1 tablespoon of plain yogurt. I'll let you know how it goes.

Hopefully when I go back to work, I'll look like I've gone to a spa instead of having an organ yanked out of my body!

Last Night's Party or Reliving the Eighties

2009-12-21T23:37:00.000-08:00

Behind every responsible parent of older teenagers lives a party animal waiting to get out. It got out at my unbirthday party last night.

A little backstory: I called it my unbirthday party because tomorrow I go in to get my gall bladder brutally yanked out. Apparently, I don't need it. Since tomorrow is my real birthday, I decided that the 20th would be my unbirthday and I was going to have a party, dammit.

I bought goodies at Trader Joes, mucho liquor and my husband called his friends. His friends because my friends are all running around making Christmas happen while their husbands attend unbirthday parties.

The nice thing about parties now as compared to parties in the eighties, is that the guests all bring booze and ice. No freeloaders. Nice. It also meant that we had an inordinate amount of booze to person ratio which set a nice tone for the evening.

So we drank. And drank. And then we drank some more. We drank irresponsibly. GREAT WHITE WAS PLAYED, PEOPLE. My young adult children, who were coming in and out doing their own thing, were astonished at the goings on. My daughter was disgusted by the ribald comments and jokes. Much hilarity was made of my husband, who'd just had hernia surgery, having to wear a panty liner against his wound to stop the seepage. One witty partier called it his manpon. The guitars were pulled out and my husband jammed at mach volume. So did others who had never picked up a guitar in their lives. New hits, like C*&% and B*&&S, were created.

After one of my daughter's "I can't believe you are all so classless and crude" comments, I pulled her aside and explained that this was our generation. This was how we partied. Well, minus the big hair and narcotics lined up on the back of public toilets.

The next morning, my husband and I woke up with our hangovers, cleaned the house, went out to breakfast and proceeded to do all the things grown ups do like make lists, run errands, and worry over bills and kids.

But last night we PARTIED!

WOW

2009-12-15T06:09:00.000-08:00

I can't believe how long it's been since I blogged! I plead insnaity, as in my life is insane!

1. Still working two jobs. Black Friday was intense as no one in the free world knows how to refold a sweater.

2. I won nano with 50,120 words, or something like that. The book isn't finished, but have got back and started revising because I know the ending will change as the book takes shape. Plus, it's just such a relief.

3. My husband goes in for surgery tomorrow and I go in the week after that to get my gallbladder taken out. So basically, Christmas has to be done NOW. I'm doing okay, Tree is up, Cards are almost ready to go out, shopping is almost done. It's the almost that worries me.

4. Waiting to hear on Excessive Speed. Figure I will have to wait until after the New Year, but hey, at least I have something out!

5. I miss my friends. I never get to see anyone!

I Have a Dream, Too

2009-11-22T11:06:00.000-08:00

This is hard for me to articulate, because it's been percolating in my head for so long... I'm not sure it's going to come out right! I just know I've been training my whole life for this project, this dream. It's as if I had to have the experiences I've had in order to be worthy of getting to this point. So here goes, I'm throwing this out into the universe!

I want to run a non-profit. I want to bring music, Portland's at-risk teens and words together in ways that will have long lasting impact. I want to run an organization that combines free writing and music workshops and teen events. The workshops will run, like, four times a year. The events will meld the inspiration of words and the inspiration of music together to change lives. In my dream, Portland based bands like Floater, Everclear and others will play and Northwest authors such as Stephanie Meyer, Sherman Alexie, and others will give readings between sets.

That's my dream and I'm sticking to it. The how is whole nother ballgame. But I'm working on it.

My Husband is a big A** Baby

2009-11-13T12:27:00.001-08:00

And I don't care who hears me say it.

For the record, I love this man. He has worked for his family harder than any man on the face of the planet,(just ask him). How could you not love a man who grocery shops, keeps my car running, fixes stuff and does laundry? Seriously. Plus, he has a great sense of humor and makes me laugh more often than not.

But.
No, make that BUT.

He is a baby. What's that baby chant we used to taunt little kids with when we were bigger kids, but not big enough to be totally secure in our bigness? Kind of like neener, neener, baby needs a binky, or something like that? That's the kind of BABY I'm talking about.

I've always known this. He is NOT a good patient. (He will admit this himself.) At twenty he ruptured his appendix and by the time his mother got there, the nurses were all like, "Oh, Thank GOD, she's finally here!"

So this shouldn't be news. I've nursed him through many an illness, after all.

But now he has a hernia and the end of the world is AT HAND. When he told me on the phone that he had to have surgery, and would be down for a month, I ALMOST HAD A HEART ATTACK. I thought, if that man is going to be sick for a month, I'm outta here. Whatever sick, sadistic S.O.B. wrote the vows in sickness and in health never had to take care of MY husband. Turns out, he would only be down a few days and would be on light duty for a month, but that is the kind of EXAGGERATION I am dealing with.

I'm trying to be sympathetic, really I am. But a hernia is NOT that big of a deal. MILLIONS of people get them and have them FIXED. I understand it is a big deal to him and I'm trying. God, am I trying.

But for the love of all that is good and holy, he's whining to a woman who had TWO children without the benefit of drugs, a twelve hour BRAIN SURGERY, BRAIN RADIATION, and had a blood vessel in the back of her sinus CAUTERIZED with VOLTS Of ELECTRICITY! WHILE CONSCIOUS.

I could SMELL my own BURNING FLESH.

Ahem. So I am really struggling with being as sympathetic as he needs me to be. Possibly because there isn't ENOUGH SYMPATHY IN THE WORLD that would satisfy.

There. I just had to get that off my chest.

Nano and Other Crazy Things

2009-11-01T09:15:00.000-08:00

Yep, I'm doing Nano. For the first time in like seven years, I had the concept and the motivation at the same time on the first of November. This idea might be THE high concept, break out novel I've been waiting for. So I went to a nano write-in last night and I can't believe how tough it is to just write and not edit. I've done it before, usually at the end of the book as I'm trying to finish, but never at the beginning when I am trying to lay a good foundation. All I have to say is December is going to be FUN.

Speaking of Nano... I went to the meet and greet last Thursday night. So I am sitting at Powells, chilling with my peeps and I hear loud applause behind me. The woman across from me says, “Some really popular children’s author is in there. Some guy named Eoin Culfer? I guess he wrote a series called Artemis Fowl?” I freak out, text my son, and run over and buy his latest and stand in line for an hour to get his autograph. I get my pix with him and bring the books home to my son, who actually gets teary-eyed! There are two authors in the world he would die to meet: one is JK Rowling, the other is Eoin Culfer.

Serendipitous!

Off to add to the 1800 words I wrote last night! (After midnight, of course!)

Been so Long

2009-10-22T04:23:00.001-07:00

Since I blogged. Sorry about that, but life has been a whirlwind of nonstop activity. The new job/promotion has been taking up quite a bit of time, but I love it, so all's good.

I think I'll wait to reveal my other announcement. That's just the way the cookie crumbles, or the ball bounces or whatever homily/cliche you want to toss into the mix.

On the good news front, my agent is back into the swing of things. Love her to pieces!

Actually got to write this week. WOOT!

Went to the eye doctor and now need bifocals, which makes me officially old.

Haven't seen my friends in far too long.

Yada, yada, yada.

What I've been doing other than blogging

2009-10-07T13:03:00.000-07:00

Basically working. 11 hours a day five days a week. More news:

1. Got a huge promotion at work that comes with a hefty raise.
2. Book club started last night. I missed my girls so much! We are starting with the Geek Girls Guide to Cheerleading. So good!
3. Am settling into the afterschool job and falling in love with the kids.
4. Am settling into the Penneys job and am actually getting useful.
5. One of our best friends came down with colon cancer.
6.My agent is back and reading the revisions of Speed. We hope to go out with it soon.
7. I have another announcement to make shortly that I am really excited about. Have to wait to say anything though. No, it isn't a book deal.
8. Am trimming down everything because I have time for nothing. Am learning to multitask. Hence the lack of bloggage.

Miss you all!

Boooks, Books, Books!

2009-09-15T07:42:00.000-07:00

When I get stressed, as I am now, I read. Luckily, since everyone has been sending me books for the book club, I have a lot of new stuff! Because I've been so busy, my reading has been done in sips rather than gulps, but that's okay, as long as I can do it!

Books I've read in the last couple of weeks:

Lovestruck Summer by Melissa Walker

Melissa has been wonderful to our book club and even made a Vlog answewring the girl's questions. She sent Lovestruck Summer and I dove right in. Love the indie music vibe it has and loved the growth of the main character. My girls are going to adore this book!

The Geek Girls Guide to Cheerleading by Charity Tahmaseb and Darcy Vance.

Wow, this was so good. Very different and I loved the main character. Totally sucked me in.

Bewitching Season by Marissa Doyle

What's not to love. Witches and magic and romance set in Regency England. What a fabulous debut. Am jealous, I am!

What I'm reading now: Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr

My gorgy niecy girl gave me this one to read. Am totally sucked in and am reading when I should be writing!

God, I love books!

I forgot

2009-09-08T04:12:00.001-07:00

I found the antidote for a very bad day... A bottle of wine and hot tubbing with a good friend. So nice!

Today I start my new job while still working my old one. I'm scheduled for 11 hours between the two of them. Writing? What writing?

Actually, I have a feeling that I will be probably write more because I will force myself to write whenever I have a free moment. Can't wait till next weekend! I wrote a lot over the holiday weekend and finished one proposal. The next item on my writing to do list is to finished the edits my agent wants on my full ms. Had a couple of breakthroughs last night as I was falling to sleep... and miracle of miracles, I still remember them!

Onward, people!

Teri's Very Bad Day

2009-09-04T16:15:00.000-07:00

Warning: Whine acoming.

1. Wake up to dh throwing the overhead light on at 3:am with "An animal puked all over our new couch."

2. Children left house a dive last night. Dirty dishes everywhere and a dishwasher full of clean dishes. Consider killling them, but decide the funeral cost would wipe us out.

3. Husband very ill and whiny. Had to go to doctors.

4. Discover that uniform is still in the washing machine and wet.

5. Don't have time for a shower. Opt to curl hair instead. Find out there's no hairspray.

6. Don't have time for breakfast. Discover it's gonna be a long day at work.

7. Get massive headache. Beg son to bring Excedrin to work.

8. Have to put away three hundred bras.

9. Old lady patially disrobes so I can fish the tag out of her skanky old bra and tell her what size it is. I kid you not.

10. Accidentally scrape hard, brown old lady bump on her back with my fingernail. She gets upset. I wonder if I now have old lady skin under my nail and what that might do.

11. Husband goes to doctors and is diagnosed with diverticulitus. Which gives him a real reason for whining. Now I HAVE to be nice to him.

12. Children fighting over who gets my car. Everyone but me, I guess.

Two Jobs No Waiting

2009-08-31T03:02:00.000-07:00

Has it really been a week since I blogged? Where has the time gone???

I've been writing a lot in preparation for starting my new job next week... while keeping my old job. So my days will start about 3:30 am and end at 6:00 pm, with a few hours off mid-day for good behavior. Don't know when I'll find time to write which is why I am on a writing marathon. After feedback from a couple of editors, I am doing some major revisions on my WIP and also getting another proposal ready to go. I've pinpointed some weaknesses in my writing, namely emotion and scene anchoring. I've learned a few things:

1. Emotion is key, but emotion without reason is a cheap writer's device that cheats the reader. It's action, then emotional reaction to that action. Trying to squeeze anything else in cheapens the story and the character arc. I've learned that one the hard way... by doing it and then realizing that it was stupid and pointless.

2. I have a hard time with descriptions and find that I mostly skip them... which leads to a story that has no depth. It's the transitions that get me. How do you go from storyline and dialogue to describing what someone is wearing and what they look like without slowing the pacing? Someone who is fabulous at that is Rachel Vincent. I devoured her new YA, My Soul to Take, in about a day. Now I'm reading it as a writer and found that she anchors the scene and gives descriptions without missing a beat. Been studying her technique in hopes some of it will rub off on me.

3. Scene purpose... wow. This lesson came about when my agent told me that an argument scene needed to be rewritten. I tried, but it still didn't work. Then I realized it was because I hadn't figured out the purpose of that scene. It was not meant to up the tension between the protagonist and another character, it was meant to create internal conflict while also developing the relationship. Once I had the purpose clear in my mind, the scene came more easily.

It's one of the things I love about writing that I lost in my quest to get another contract... there's always something to learn and I love doing it. Funny how I figured that out just as I'm about to lose my writing time! HA!

I told my husband I was going to continue to write even if I did have two jobs and someone else was going to have to do the cooking and the cleaning. That went down like a lead balloon. (Sorry for the cliche, but it's so apt!)

We'll see how that goes down for everyone!

The YA Angels Who Made it Happen

2009-08-24T03:37:00.001-07:00

The response to my shameless begging was incredbile and I feel blessed to be a part of the young adult writing community. We have eight months spoken for and I am going to go with that as we usually don't meet in December. These are the books we have lined up for the year:

(In no particular order)

My Soul to Take, written by and donated by Rachel Vincent
Lovestruck Summer, written by and donated by Melissa Walker
Bewitching Season, written by and donated by Marissa Doyle
The Geek Girls Guide to Cheerleading, written by and donated by Charity Tahmaseb and Darcy Vance
The Emerald Tablet, Written by and donated by PH Hoover
Hugging the Rock, written by and donated by Susan Taylor Brown
Frindle, written by Andrew Clements donated by Kay Cassidy, author of The Cinderella Society.
A book of our choice, donated by Cherlyn Michaels, author of the adult book, Counting Raindrops Through a Stained Glass Window and First Fridays.

Kay Cassidy also said she would let us choose a book if the kids already read Frindle in school. My friend Ann, gave me a check for twenty dollars to help pick up extra books if we run short.

What an amazing list of books and an amazing list of authors.Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I am hoping to put together a montage of pictures and will post soon! Muah!

The Girls I Love and Shameless Begging

2009-08-20T18:13:00.000-07:00

As most of you know,(I've mentioned it enough!), I run a book club for teen and tween girls at a low income community center. Actually, it's a low income housing project and the community center is located at the apartments. Many of the residents are transitioning out of homelessness or other bad situations. The center is a meeting place that provides after school and summer programs for the kids, parenting classes, and meetings for those who had had alcohol or chemical dependencies. It truly is a place that fights generational poverty on all levels. You can check it out at www.cpahinc.com.

Last year I worked as an after school tutor, but finances reared its ugly head and they had to let me go. Sob. However, the book club lives on!!!!

There are eight hardcore members (and a couple who show up intermittently) who love their book club and want more than anything to have it continue this year. For that I need some very special authors who are willing to give of their books. There is NO money to buy books. I had a fabulous list of authors and books last year! All sent books, some came to visit, others made a vlog and sent gifts. Out of the eight members who attended faithfully, I had three who were already readers. Now I have eight! That is HUGE!!!!The connection with the authors is key. I need that again this year! If you are an author or are someone willing to help out, please contact me. Remember, I need eight to ten of the same book and that can be a challenge! Now I'm going to share some pix of my most fabulous and lovely girls!

April, Kamiliah(MeeMee!)and Ana

Jenny doesn't know I took this pix!

Shamsa and Jaeteonna being silly and shy. I think that's Top Ten Uses for an Unworn Prom Dress by Tina Ferraro that they're looking at!

GCC Presents The Lost Sister by Megan Kelly Hall

2009-08-17T04:10:00.000-07:00

This sounds like a fabulous premise!

THE LOST SISTER takes a chilling look at what happens when hazing pushes someone too far.

Sisters are born, not chosen…
Maddie Crane is grappling with the disappearance of Cordelia LeClaire, and trying to escape the grasp of The Sisters of Misery—an insidious clique of the school’s most powerful girls, whose pranks have set off a chain of horrific events, and who have Maddie in their sights…

Beware the sister betrayed…
Now in a prestigious boarding school far away from her mysterious hometown of Hawthorne, Massachusetts , Maddie feels free from danger. But when an unmarked envelope arrives at her dorm containing a single ominous tarot card, Maddie realizes with terror that some secrets won’t stay buried. Knowing she must return to Hawthorne—a town still scarred by the evil of the Salem witch trials—Maddie prepares to face the fears of her past...and the wrath of the sister she wronged.

A character driven tale containing a deep Gothic feel and haunting foreboding atmosphere that hooks fans of all ages....With strong ties to the late seventeenth century Salem Witch Trials, THE LOST SISTER is a super thriller. -- Harriet Klausner

Hall will have your heart racing and you will not be able to put this book down. With historical allusions to the New England witch trials and a touch of the paranormal, THE LOST SISTER is a thriller in a league of its own.
-- TeensReadtoo / Awarded THE LOST SISTER the Hall of Fame Gold Star Award for Excellence

Blown away... The suspense, mystery, intrigue, and drama steadily build up throughout the novel, making it impossible to put the book down. I would recommend it to almost all book lovers. It has made me hungry for more of Ms. Hall's work! - Mrs. Magoo Reads

AUTHOR BIO:
Megan Kelley Hall, 35, freelance writer and literary publicist living North of Boston, is the author of the SISTERS OF MISERY series. Her first novel, SISTERS OF MISERY, published by Kensington in August 2008 has received rave reviews by reviewers and readers alike.

She studied creative writing at Skidmore College under the Pulitzer-Prize winning author Steven Millhauser. Megan spends most of her time promoting her clients as a partner and founder of Kelley & Hall Book Publicity and Promotion, which she opened with her mother, Gloria Kelley, and sister, Jocelyn Maeve Kelley, over a few years ago. The company has run successful campaigns for authors, including New York Time's best-selling authors Jacquelyn Mitchard (Deep End of the Ocean), Michael Palmer (The First Patient and Extreme Measures), Brunonia Barry (The Lace Reader) and Lisa Genova (Still Alice).

No News is No News

2009-08-12T03:01:00.000-07:00

I don't have a single coherent thought to make a blog out of,(probably because it's 3am.!) so am just going to ramble.

1. Got my hair colored yesterday. It's dark. Very dark. I likey.

2. Spent Sunday night in the Er. Possible gallstones or gastritis or an ulcer. All I know is it hurt WORSE than CHILDBIRTH. Oh, and the medication they mainlined in my arm was fabulous. Also, I seem to have the magically exploding veins and my arms now have as many tracks as an addict. Another thing I have to thank my mother for.

3.Am waiting to hear some news on something. Have been waiting for eight weeks. Shoot me.

4.It's raining outside. I love the rain. LOVE it. It's soft and moist and, well, wet. All the stuff rain should be. My skin is sighing in relief. As are the roses.

5. Watched Breakfast at Tiffany's last night with daughter and her fiance. She's an Audrey Hepburn fanatic. She once dressed up as Holly Golightly for Halloween. He sat through the whole thing. He sure does love her.

See, I told you I didn't have enough for a whole blog.

GCC Presents Stephanie Kuehnert

2009-08-11T07:53:00.000-07:00

I loved Stephanie's book, I Wanna Be your Joey Ramon and I am looking forward to getting my hands on this one! Check it!

In high school, Kara McNaughton helped maintain the “Stories of Suburbia” notebook, which contained newspaper articles about bizarre and often tragic events from suburbs all over, as well as personal vignettes written by her friends,which Kara dubbed “ballads”. Ballads are the kind of songs that Kara likes best.

Not the clichéd ones but the truly genuine, gut-wrenching songs that convey love, loss and an individual’s story. Those “stories of Suburbia” were heartbreakingly honest tales of the moments when life changes and a kid is forced to grow up too soon. But Kara never wrote her own ballad. Before she could figure out what her song was about, she was leaving town after a series of disastrous events at the end of her junior year of high school.

Four years later, Kara returns to face the music, and tells the tale of her first three years of high school with her friends’ “ballads” interspersed throughout. Among them are her best friend Stacey, who dates guy after guy trying to find the one who will take care of her the way her parents never did; Cass, who copes with her mother’s mental illness and her older brother’s abandonment by doing copious amounts of acid; Adrian the creator of the “Stories of Suburbia”, who has “Thrown Away” tattooed on his forearms to express how he feels about his
adoptive parents and his birth parents; Christian, who seems like the nice guy type that Kara belongs with, but has a violent streak; Kara’s little brother Liam, who idolized Johnny Cash as a preschooler and has idolized Kara all his life though she lets him down again and again; and Maya, an eccentric but beautiful redhead who refuses to talk about her mother’s suicide.

Then of course, there’s Kara. She begins high school as a loner, who copes with her lack of friends and her rapidly unraveling home life by going to concerts with Liam, smoking the occasional joint, and cutting herself when things get really bad. She’s reluctant at first when she tags along with Maya to Scoville Park, where the "misfit" kids hang out, but she really wants “a life.” The summer after junior year that life nearly ends with a heroin overdose, the event that triggers Kara’s exit from Oak Park.

All the things that happen in between make up the ballads of suburbia.

My Bad!

2009-08-06T09:02:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, I wrote a post called Butt Rock Friday in which I called someone from my teenaged past a scumbag. I just received an email from his sister telling me that I should think about what I write before posting and her brother was not a scumbag. My bad.

In truth, he wasn't. He was just a gorgeous seventeen year old male doing what gorgeous seventeen year old males are wont to do.

Alfalfa was a weird place to grow up. I've actually thought many times about writing a memoir called "Surviving Alfalfa", but am afraid of getting sued if I wrote about the inhabitants of that wonderful, backward community.

When I remember Alfalfa, it's with both a pang of longing and a shudder of revulsion. But isn't that the normal way to remember the place where you came of age?

I didn't fit in, but Lordy, did I try. And we had some major fun, as well. We snuck out a lot, drank a lot, and got into trouble, but what else was there to do? The stories I could tell... but I won't!

Anyway, my apologies to the nonscumbag and his family!

Heat, New Jobs and Alibi Junior High

2009-07-30T07:07:00.000-07:00

After a winter with the biggest, longest snow fall Portland has ever seen, we have one of the longest, hottest heat waves we've ever seen. Here in Tigard, we've reached 110 degrees two days in a row. Our house has been dark for so long, I could have giant dust bunnies getting ready to attack and I wouldn't know it. Pretty bad when today it's going to cool down... to 100! Watering our plants and keeping them alive has turned into a full time job.

Speaking of jobs, I scored TWO in the last week. One teaching in a brand new afterschool program and another stocking at JC Pennys. Don't ask me how I am going to get any writing done, but I'm sure it'll all sort itself out. The stocking job ends about the same time the other begins, which works out nicely.

Now check out this book! I love boy books and will be sure to pick this one up!

Thirteen-year-old Cody Saron has never lived in one place longer than a few weeks, and has never attended a regular school. Growing up on the run with his father, an undercover agent for the CIA, Cody has traveled the entire globe; he speaks five languages, and he has two black belts. What Cody isn't prepared for is...junior high.

When the danger surrounding Cody's dad heats up, Cody is sent to stay with the aunt he's never known, Jenny, in her small Connecticut suburb. Cody has no idea how to fit in with other kids, how to handle his first crush, or how to make it through a day of classes.

As Cody struggles to adapt to the one thing he's never experienced -- a normal life -- he starts to fear that his father's world has followed him and no one he loves is safe. Greg Logsted weaves together action, humor, and heart, building to a surprising revelation about what Cody has always believed to be true.

GCC Presents Jennifer Banash

2009-07-24T07:36:00.000-07:00

(How did I miss this series? Where was I? Check it! )

Life in the Big Apple for Midwesterner from ‘Normal’ is definitely ‘no place like home’

Long Beach, CA, May 1, 2009 - Third and last in The Elite book series – Jennifer Banash brings us more adventures from the spoiled, rich teens in Manhattan who nearly ate Casey McCloy alive when she first arrived in the Big Apple from her small town of Normal, Illinois. Casey learned very quickly after she moved in with her grandmother at The Bramford, the most exclusive luxury apartment building on New York’s Upper East Side and got into the prestigious Meadowlark Academy on a full scholarship, that it’s not who you are but who you know!

Simply Irresistible (Penguin) brings us a whole new set of adventures now that Casey has had a big city-haute makeover, courtesy of her classmate and neighbor Madison Macallister – part teen icon and part queen diva-bitch. Wearing the right clothes, saying the right things, and meeting the right people, has given Casey the look and the attitude – she’s “in” and loving it! Much to Madison’s dismay, her rival is climbing up the social ladder in a big way and could end up just as popular as Madison now that the two are set to star in their own TV reality show, “De-Luxe.” Yes, showbiz came knocking on two of The Bramford’s most illustrious doors and, as much as Madison thrives on the attention the show brings, she’s not thrilled about having every bit of her life of privilege caught on tape. However, fame comes at a price and Madison is one chick who is willing to pay anything…especially if it means becoming the next reality “it girl.” Casey, on the other hand, is realizing that Reality TV can sometimes beunreal, causing her to wonder if she even knows who she is anymore. With her relationship with Drew, Madison’s ex, currently more off than on, she can’t help wondering if everything i n her life is really just an illusion – and how much longer the illusion can last….

Although The Elite series is obsessed with fashion and glamour, Branash does an impressive job of examining real issues that teens face, such as cutting, divorce, infidelity, and drug addiction. Having personally attended high school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan provided the author with the background for her ample insight and imagination portrayed in The Elite Series.

Summer of Accomplishment

2009-07-22T03:23:00.000-07:00

Just in case you all thought I was in a deep blue funk from my summer of fail, I decided to list the things I managed to get finished the last couple of months. And no, unfortunately, it doesn't include a book, though my fabulous CP did manage to finish her book in the time it took me to write two chapters. Go Kerensa!

1. Boat pad. By utilizing the joys of Craiglist, my husband and I managed to gravel in a boat pad for the boat, as well as the quicksand in front of the woodshed for FREE. SCORE!

2. A drainage trench. Our water box was always full of water and, (after several threatening notes from the city of Tigard,) we put in a french drain. Again, due to Craigslist, we managed to get the gravel for free and the pipe (with sock) for 15 bucks. Another SCORE!

3. The unsightly stump in the front patio is GONE, thanks to a group effort from myself, our son and my husband. It is also filled in and ready to be graded and the flagstone laid. That means no lake in front of the home this winter!

4.The back patio, which was two slabs of unsightly concrete has been stained a beautiful warm shale and coated with four coats of wet look sealer. It now looks like something out of a magazine. Seriously, I should get an award for this.

5.Garage is cleaned out. If I had before and after pix, you would be amazed at just what a hurculean task this really was. It's a huge load off our backs, both literally and figuratively.

6. Bark dust is finished, weeds are gone, lawn has been weeded and feeded, new flowers planted and formal rose garden is almost ready to be dug out. (Will plant this fall when it is safe to move roses.) Our yard has never looked more lovely.

So you see, I've done TONS this summer and feel pretty darn good about it!

Note to those who didn't really get the "That SUCKED" comment from my blog on motherhood... Actually, I LOVED raising my children. They were some of the greatest years of my life and are now two of my best friends. But motherhood, just like every other worthwhile venture, is COMPLICATED. And I use humor to deflect the painful parts and it IS painful. Loving human beings that much hurts sometimes. I'm just saying.

On Motherhood and Curses

2009-07-14T07:05:00.000-07:00

As I near the end of my Mommy years, I've come up with a few thoughts on the process that may help young women. (Or send them screaming into the night.)

1. Drugs and partying are wasted on the young. Moms need it more than anyone. In fact, it's the only sane response to motherhood. Don't be afraid to get a sitter and tie one on. Two tips: One, make sure the sitter stays overnight so you don't have to get up in the morning and two, don't drink and drive. Undoubtedly, you have at least three appointments for each child the next day and who is going to drive them if you lose your license?

2. Children are a strange mix of egotism and insecurities, but that's the human condition and there's nothing you can do about it.

3. You can't stop genetics or curses. I thought if I just worked at it hard enough, my children would have none of my bad traits. But I've learned if you have two parents who have to get in the last word and love to argue, chances are, you WILL NOT have a child who meekly does everything you ask with no verbal response. In fact, I think that children end up combining everything bad about you and your spouse into one person. Remember that curse YOUR mother whispered fervently at the kitchen table? "I hope you have a child just like you?" Your spouse's mother said the same thing. That's a DOUBLE MOTHER CURSE, and as such, you are DOOMED. This goes all the way back to ADAM AND EVE.

4. No parenting book in the world is going to give you perfect children, (see number 3,) so you might as well just burn the books and roast marshmallows over the coals. The best you can hope for is that they will leave the house as fully functioning human beings and DON'T MOVE BACK IN WITH THEIR CHILDREN. If you manage that, you have done your job.

5. Make up with the man you married around the time the kids get old enough to vote. They're going to be leaving alone you ALONE WITH HIM soon and you might as well be friends when they do. Don't worry about being friends with him while the babies are young, he did this to you, after all. And the middle years are when you realize that old adage you learned in Kindergarten is true-- boys are dumb. But when the kids leave the nest, you discover that he still has the same traits you fell in love with, albeit less hair and more belly. ( And God knows, you don't look the same either.) So it's time to kiss and make up--might as well, you both survived the same shipwreck.

6. Work for that guilt free retirement. Be the best Mom you can be so when they leave, you can ride off into the sunset with a bigass margarita, saying, "Wow that sucked!" And you won't feel guilty about their choices. Save all the pictures, vacation memorabilia, museum brochures and event programs you can, so that if they do end up screwed up, you can reassure yourself that it wasn't anything you did or didn't do.

A tribute to my dad

2009-07-12T09:13:00.001-07:00

My dad turned 93 on Friday and the family celebrated by having a large family reunion on Saturday. My brother Jerry put together an amazing collage of my dad's life and I was wowed by it.

Imagine for a minute living 93 years. One of my nephews who is packing as much adventure in his life as possible said, "I'm modeling my life after my fantasy of Grandpa's life. Look at how many phases of life he packed into one." Looking at the pictures, I got what he meant. He was in the 3C's during the depression, a Corporal in WW2, worked in the canneries in Alaska, worked picking fruit in Eastern Washington during the dust bowl years, became an executive at Boeing when the 747's were just coming out, bought a farm in central Oregon, opened his own auto parts business and volunteered as a park ranger at Lake Mead. (Not to mention adopting me when he was in his fifties and married my mother!) What an amazing full life he had. Here are some pix. Can you tell during which phase he was called the Clark Gable of Alaska? LOL

Happy Birthday, Dad! I love you!

The Summer of FAIL

2009-07-08T07:08:00.000-07:00

So you all know that the hubby and I are redoing our yard. We've been digging, pruning, weeding and graveling. Because of our renewed interest in having something besides a jungle surround our home, the fates have decided to play small head games with us. It all started with water in our meter box which precipitated the drainage trench in our front flower bed. Things just escalated from there, both inside and out.

1. Car Fail. From knocking to backfiring to flat tires, all of our cars have had something wrong with them this summer. My son's Honda left him stranded after he went and picked up his best friend from camp. My husband's truck inexplicably had the mysterious loosening spark plug. The Suzuki is STILL in the shop after 16 days due to a ghostly whining coming from the transmission!

2. Garbage Disposal Fail. It took two trys to fix this one. And without the disposal, you can't run the DISHWASHER!.

3. Dog Fail. After ten years of being skunk free, my Scrappy Doo has been hit by a skunk twice... at three am.

4. Health Fail. Had to take darling daughter to the doctors yesterday after a night of uncontrolled vomiting and found out she has Cyclic Vomiting Syndrome. Huh, well, that explains a lot. Turns out CVS is related to her motion sickness, migraines and fainting spells. And we thought it was just because she was a diva. (Okay, she's still a diva, now she just has more to diva about.)

5.Washing Machine Fail. This oh-so-important piece of household machinery failed five hours BEFORE my dog got skunked. Wonerful, wonerful.

6. Coordination Fail. This summer, I have fallen, hit myself with the butt end of a shovel and wrapped a rose vine around my bare calf. Yesterday was the ultimate in coordination fail when I dumped a Starbucks with a faulty lid down the front of my shirt. In public.

6. Soap Fail. My left hand still smells like skunk.

Best Fourth Evah

2009-07-05T06:55:00.000-07:00

Had kind of a neighborhood block party. An impromtu one, which is the best kind. Made a pitcher of Mojitos. (As an aside, a fifth of rum is too much for a gallon jug of mojitos. I'm just saying.)

We started the evening at my house, moved to the street for the fireworks display put on by neighbors, then went across the street for a spur of the minute jam session, (my dh still has it). We then ended the evening in another neighbors hot tub. (Note to self: score hot tub.)

I'm really overjoyed that I'm in my forties and can still have the best day ever. YAY!

Oh, also had a garage sale over the holiday weekend. Very profitable, and my poor OCD husband got his garage back. My daughter and I started cleaning while he was at work last Monday and the poor guy had a full blown anxiety attack when he got home. It was like we had entered and defiled the Holy of Holies. The amount of stuff he managed to squirrel away in the past ten years is incredible! Who needs thirty cleaned out butter tubs? Magazines dating from 1997? After three ten-hour days of cleaning, organizing and THROWING AWAY, we had a huge garage sale and got rid of even MORE stuff. Then my dh, who never tosses anything, actually loaded almost everything left into the truck himself! BREAKTHROUGH! He LOVES being able to move around. I am SO PROUD OF HIM! He's like a recovered junk .... well, junkie.

Of course, I had like five hours of sleep, which is not enough to run the day on, but it was worth it. Hope everyone else's fourth was as fab as mine was!!!

Notes

2009-06-26T05:26:00.000-07:00

1. Michael Jackson's death. So conflicted about this. On one hand, I danced to his music in the eighties and adored his style. On the other hand, repeated accusations of pedophila and other bizzarre behavior will just not go away in my mind. For me, the MJ I loved has been gone for a long, long time. As someone on Twitter put it, "I wish I could take that talented and handsome young man and put him into another dimension before it all went wrong.

2. Son went to a party last night and texted me to say he wouldn't be home. He's 19. I'm so thankful he's mature enough to know ahead of time that he won't be driving. I'm so thankful he doesn't do even a quarter of the stuff I was doing at 19. So how come I still couldn't sleep???

3. How come now that I'm jobless, I'm so busy I have no idea how I made time for an actual job?? I can't seem to find time to write, let alone work. The yard, the house, my family and my parents take up SO MUCH TIME! There is always something that needs to be washed, weeded, trimmed, taken to the vets, taken to the doctors or cleaned. WTH?

4. Tomorrow is our last book club Starbucks/B&N trip until fall. So. Much. Fun.

My New Project

2009-06-24T06:46:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I put together a teen book club through my former job at Community Partners of Affordable Housing. I love me some book club girls... they're funny and insightful and all the things you would expect girls ages 11 to 15 to be. I'm not doing book club this summer, but will start up again in the fall. But one of the girls wanted my RACE for the CURE T-shirt and an idea was born.

So now we are doing a running club and hopefully will all run the 5k race at the Komen race this fall. I'm doing this for many reasons,

1. Self worth. Completing a 5k gives you a huge sense of self accomplishment. This is something I would love these girls to have.

2. Health. The statistics on low income teens and obesity is through the roof. If only a few of these girls learn good nutrition and how to care for their bodies, it will be worth it.

3. I miss them like CRAZY!

I plan on talking about nutrition and self care during our training sessions. We'll meet once a week through the summer to train. My biggest concern is not only the money it takes to enter, but also lack of good running gear. We are meeting today to talk about our schedule and the kind of equipment they have... I don't know if they have shoes or running bras, because a few of them will definitely need running bras!

So yeah, I will probably be hitting you all up for clothing later in the summer once I ascertain what they actually need. You all have been so great about sending books for their library and the book club, that I am sure I will have no problem getting the right gear for them. I also plan on putting up some pictures so you can meet my girls... Shamsa, Kameellia, Jennifer, Ana, April, and Jayteanna are all in and I am trying to get a couple of the others, as well.

I wanted to change the world... I just didn't know I was going to do it a few girls at a time:)

Just Call Me the Gravel Queen

2009-06-22T06:23:00.000-07:00

The last two weeks have been all about gravel. Big gravel, little gravel, in-between gravel. I had no idea how much gravel one yard could hold. And they measure gravel by the yard and no, one yard of gravel does not finish the yard. Fancy that.

It's also been about paint. Spray paint and regular paint. Finished painting the caulk on the front of the house and will hit the back this week, so our house will no longer look as if it were held together with Elmers School Glue. Spray painted the shelf in the bathroom. Who knew that spray painting would hurt so much. My forefinger had a crater sized hole in it by the time I was done.

Am still plotting my WIP. The story is told from the POV of four different girls and I can admit I am floundering a bit. I'm getting the hang of it, but it is different. Am experimenting with different plotting techniques to see if any fit this particular book. None of the techniques I've tried--colored stickies, index cards, standing on my head and talking into a recorder, seem to be helping. Going to experiment with an excel sheet at some point. I really need to see how the plot strands hold together. Any pointers would be great!

Okay, must run. Taking my car in to be serviced then making two more gravel runs. Hope everyone else is having a good summer!

Blogger Break

2009-06-08T06:40:00.000-07:00

I think I'm going to take a break from blogger for a week or so. I hate leaving it lie fallow, so to speak, but honestly, I need a little perspective right now. A wee break that will hopefully leave me fresher and ready to write.

I'll probably still twitter because I can't help myself... plus, oneliners come easy to me.

Hugs!
Teri

We Done Been Skunked

2009-06-05T05:10:00.001-07:00

For the past few mornings we've had a skunk nosing around the greenspace next to our home. You all remember my dog, Scrappy, right? Well, Scrappy does take offense to any creature roaming to close to our back yard, hims does.

This morning at 3AM, my exhausted Dh let Scrappy out to go to the bathroom.

Scrappy is part Dachshund, part Beagle and ALL HOUND. The skunk had the audacity to actually come INTO the backyard and Scrappy went ballistic in an effort to drive him out. Woke me out of a sound sleep. I sat up and thought, S&%#, he's got a coon cornered.

Nope, just your average, ordinary skunk. I don't know what actually happened out there in the dark--some Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon crap, no doubt, but I do know who won. Scrappy got a full frontal skunk assault. So DH lets him into the house and says inanely, "He got sprayed."

No shit, Sherlock. Ya think? I'm running around in my old stripped nightgown, trying to function, my son is yelling from his bedroom to get the dog back outside and my daughter has slipped on a gas mask.(WTF? Does she keep one under her bed in case of a random mustard gas attack?) Dh just stands there, blinking wildly, while Scrappy rubs his offending face all over the couch.

Chaos. Mayhem. Bedlam. Confusion in the ranks.

So far, we have washed him with vinegar and shampoo, Hydrogen Peroxide and dishsoap, and then used degreaser and a bounce sheet on his head where we could actually see the skunk oil. We've set out bowls of coffee grounds and vinegar and sprayed the house with Febreze. Now DH is headed to the store for a Massingill Douche. Yes, I will be douching my dog at 6AM.

Sorry Ann, I don't think I'm going to make our Starbucks chat this morning.

Out of Commission

2009-06-02T06:47:00.000-07:00

The yard finally got the better of me.

After more weeding, staking, snipping and trimming, the husband and I decided last Saturday to buy a couple of loads of bark mulch to spread. I mean truck loads because we have more flowerbeds than the queen does at Buckingham Palace. I went ahead of him and prepped the beds while he unloaded and spread the mulch. Sunday morning we got up and found free gravel on Craigslist. FREE! We made two trips during which we shoveled, loaded and dug like mad people. But it was WORTH IT because we finally got the area in front of our woodshed graveled. Which is a good thing because in the winter, people could actually disappear in the mud trying to put another log on the fire. In fact, I think that's what happened to my great Aunt Agnes.

Now this is all good stuff because we are spitting distance of being done with the yard. Which means all we have to do is maintain the darn thing while we work on other projects like the front patio and the side fence. It made me very happy and I went to bed Sunday night, sore but satisfied.

Too bad I woke up a cripple yesterday. Not only could I not move without pain, but I had to take my parents to the doctors. And wait for three hours. And then go to work.

After another restless night last night, I have come to the conclusion that I am old. And not only am I old, but I no longer want to take care of a yard that boast 13trees, 15 rose bushes, a pond and 12 flower beds. I want a hot tub for my back, huge patios, hammocks and lounge chairs, an outdoor kitchen and maybe a potted plant or two. HGTV needs to come and give me a yard makeover. I'm desperate.

Surprising Things about Almost Grown Up Children

2009-05-28T10:03:00.000-07:00

My kids constantly surprise me. Both of my young adults are still living in the home (I was banking on at least one of them going off to college, but nooooo!) and this basically means we have four full sized people living in a house that was meant for two adults and two little ones. Or just two adults. And honestly, at 6'3, my son is like two and a half people.

Beyond the normal insanity, (like sharing one bathroom among four people that all need showers before work,) there are a lot of things that totally blow my mind. I didn't know that young adults could still be so... weird. Here's a few things that happened recently.

1. My son wore a Burger King crown all morning. He's nineteen.

2. My daughter spent all afternoon talking like Borat. "I have to go to the library and study till my brains fall out," isn't funny... unless you sound like Borat. To hear that voice coming out of a pretty, blond girl's mouth is... unsettling, to say the least.

3. My son now bbq's his own hotdogs... for breakfast.

4. On her way out the door, my daughter turned to the family and said, "Do you know this porch light has been on all day? I've been watching and waiting to see if someone would turn it off, but NO! It's five PM and still BURNING electricity! Money, people, money!" (At this point my eyes popped out of my head and rolled helterskelter across the floor.)

5.My son is perhaps the pickiest person on the face of the planet. Honestly, this kid eats nothing with actual FLAVOR. Yet he watches Bizarre Food with Andrew Zimmern religiously and says Zimmern has, "The best job evah." Huh? He won't eat anything white (like mayo or cream cheese, etc.,) but wants to fly across the world and sit in some dive eating deep fried monkey testicles?

Sometimes I look at these people and think, I did this? How?

The Perfect Day

2009-05-26T08:41:00.000-07:00

This isn't the perfect career day. Oh, no. That would be if my agent called me up with a three book deal and an option for film. This was the perfect personal day.

After working twelve hours in the yard that would not be done on Sunday, fisherman and myself decided to get the hell out of dodge before the yard sucked us in again and head to the beach on Memorial Day. Memorial Day weekend in Oregon is usually wet and cold. Think of the moors in Wuthering Heights. But not this one. In fact, some of the weathermen, (people, if that's how you roll) said it was the best memorial day weekend in recent history. A memorable Memorial Day, if you will.

So fisherman and myself headed to the beach. No children asking if we were there yet and could we go to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for candy, (A place in Seaside where the children were convinced the oompa loompas lived), no teens asking for money, just us.

Because it was just us, we went to Cannon Beach instead of the teen hangout, Seaside. We poked around galleries and shops and then headed on to Manzanita for lunch at the San Dune Pub.

Epic Burger. Epic beer.

We sat out on that patio and soaked up the sun, (and the beer) for hours. Much later we stumbled, er walked, out onto the beach. I actually talked fisherman into taking his shoes off and walking in the sand, something he hasn't done since he was a child because he has, as he puts it, "feet softer than a princess's cheek."

After that, we drove around the coast for a while before heading home. On the way we stopped at Krispy Kreme for doughnuts and coffee. Mmmm Doughnuts.

All in all an absolutely perfect day. The only downside was the yard didn't finish itself while we were gone. Sigh.

Communication Texting Style

2009-05-22T14:51:00.000-07:00

Being a batshit crazy American family with absolutely no time to breathe, let alone eat dinner together, my husband, two teens and I have resorted to communicating by text. Some of my texts:

Son: Two famous donuts meet in the bar and have coffee together.
Me: What???
Son: Exactly.

Daughter: Old Navy is having a huge sale on flip flops! A dollar each!
Me: No money, Honey. Buy them yourself.
Daughter: Shoot me. I can't even afford a pair of flip flops at OLD NAVY!Remember when we used to go to Nordies and Hollister?
Me: Those days are gone. U a big girl now.
Daughter: Being a grown up sucks.
Me: You have no idea.

Hubby: You at Kaiser?
Me: Yeah. Boob squish appointment.
Hubby: Oooh. Sexy. What are you wearing?
Me: Old bra turned gray from too many washings, holey underwear, limp tee shirt and jeans. You?
Hubby: Same thing.

A few minutes later: Minus the bra.

Well, Thank God for that.

Melissa Walker and Lovestruck Summer

2009-05-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

I am so happy that GCC is presenting Melissa Walker this week. Not only because I love her books, but because Melissa is an amazing person, as well. She was one of our first book club picks and she not only sent my girls free books, but made them a vlog and answered all their questions. She is a SUPER PERSON! Check out her new book and then go buy it!

Lovestruck Summer
by Melissa Walker

LOVESTRUCK SUMMER (HarperTeen; May 5, 2009; $5.99) is the story of Quinn, an indie rock girl who came out to Austin, Texas for a music internship. She also plans to spend long, lazy days in the sun at outdoor concerts--and to meet a hot musician or two. Instead, she’s stuck rooming with her sorority brainwashed cousin, who now willingly goes by the name “Party Penny.” Their personalities clash, big time.

But Sebastian, a gorgeous DJ, definitely makes up for it. Sebastian has it all: looks, charm, and great taste in music. So why can’t Quinn keep her mind off Penny’s friend cute, All-American Russ and his Texas twang?

Sebastian is the kind of guy Quinn wants, but is Russ the guy Quinn needs? One thing’s certain: Quinn’s in for a summer she’ll never forget!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
A former editor at ELLEgirl and Seventeen magazines, Melissa Walker knows her indie rock. She hails from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and currently resides in Brooklyn, New York. She loves talking about books, fashion, magazines and all kinds of pop culture. Visit her at melissacwalker.com or on iheartdaily.com.

I wonder

2009-05-19T13:14:00.001-07:00

1. I wonder: why my 19 year-old-son has yet to master the art of turning anything off. You would think a boy who can beat Call of Duty could figure out how to turn off the TV or the stereo or the stove. But no.

2. I wonder: why my daughter keeps a planner more religiously than anyone I have ever known and yet still misses appointments.

3. I wonder: why editor time is not the same as writer time. It's the same for a deli worker and a customer, A dockworker and a ship, even a doctor and a patient. But some magical space/time continuum happens between a writer and an editor that keeps their times wildly different.

4.I wonder: why dogs are only potty trained in the summer and not in the winter.

I wonder: why, if my husband has asked the same question for twenty years "what's for dinner?" and I keep giving the same answer, "I dunno" why he keeps asking. Like I'm magically going to start planning dinner before dinnertime?

Job Search Update

2009-05-15T07:40:00.000-07:00

Dear Ms. Bigwig,

As you can tell from my resume, I have many qualifications that would make me right for your cushy, well-paying job. Thank you for taking the time to consider my resume.
Sincerely,
Teri Brown

Dear Teri Brown,

Thank you for your interest in answering phones, making coffee and coordinating schedules. It looks as if you have all the right qualifications for the job. Unfortunately, you do not have a degree. I understand if you did have a degree you would have received it before personal computers, (or any computers for that matter,) were common and would therefore be out of date, but without that degree you could not possibly know how to answer a phone.
Thanks, but no thanks.
Mr. Bigwig's secretary

Dear Mr. Burger Joint Owner,
As you can tell from my resume, I have many qualifications that would make me a master burger flipper. Thank you for your consideration.
Teri Brown

Dear Teri Brown,

Thank you so much for your interest in the position of master burger flipper. I'm afraid you are over-qualified and would not be happy in this job for the long term.
Regretfully,
Mr. Burger Joint Owner's wife

PS. Can you sign a book for my daughter? I know she would love it.

Dear Perfect Job for Me Boss,

I would be perfect for this position. Thank you for your time.

*crickets*

Biggest Loser Ever: The Economy

2009-05-13T07:29:00.000-07:00

Before I get into the doom and gloom, (Oh, I bet that made you want to read on didn't it?)I just wanted to say congrats to Helen, who won this season's Biggest Loser. Not only is she a woman, but she's also 48. That's what I'm talking about, people! The at home winner was 64! Great season, my favorite so far!

Now for the DOOM: My freelancing writing seems to be slowing down to the pace of a salted slug. (How's that for a visual?) Which is why I am blogging from home instead of S-bux, because my coffee shop money just got reallocated, to, oh, I don't know, ELECTRICITY! FOOD! WATER! As we tighten our belts, I discover that mine is especially tight. Must be all that toast. Hmmm, maybe I should run more.

Now for the GLOOM : Community Partner's For Affordable Housing lost a grant they have been receiving for the last four or five years. It's the grant that pays my salary among many other important things. So the job I adore, the one I have put so much effort into is gone, poof!! No more. What is heartbreaking is how hard it is on the kids whenever anyone leaves. On the upside, I am leaving a wonderful YA library, thanks to you all, and I am still volunteering my time for book club. So all systems are still go on that front. The downside, I have to get a full time job. Hopefully, I will be able to find something that I love as much as I did this one.

TOAST!

2009-05-11T07:55:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: Don’t read the following post if you are carb-o-phobic or trying to lose weight. Toast is many things, as you will see, but weight reducing it is not.

So I’ve been thinking a lot about toast lately. I know, I know, I need to get a life. But if you think about it, toast is one of the greatest foods ever discovered. Bread is important, (you couldn’t have toast without it) but the act of toasting the bread and slathering it with butter takes bread to a whole nother level.

It’s one of the most versatile foods going, (right up there with cheese, but that’s a different blog) and honestly, breakfast would all but disappear without it. If there is little else in the house to eat, you can always have toast.

For instance, are you in the mood for something sweet? Add a little jam, or better yet, cinnamon and sugar. Need something more substantial? Add peanut butter and bananas, or cream cheese. Or take it a step further and have a Hole in One. Add garlic to create a side for spaghetti , (in case you’re like me and always forgetting the French bread!)Are you a purist? Toast with tea or coffee might be more up your alley.

Just the thought of all these toast delights makes me stalk to the kitchen like an automaton and pop some bread in the toaster.

So next time you eat a piece of toast, take a second and marvel over it. Toast. Mmmm. I honestly believe that the manna God dropped from the sky was buttered toast. The smell of toasting bread ranks right up there as the most heavenly smell ever sniffed.

Toast recipe: I developed this recipe when I was a kid. Make toast and spread with butter and then peanut butter. Sprinkle eight chocolate chips on top. Broil until the chocolate chips are melted and then swirl with a knife.

The Things I Said I'd Never Do

2009-05-07T06:44:00.000-07:00

It's humbling to recall all the things you said you'd never do. You know, the great pronouncements you make that you end up having to take back. This isn't just in teendom either, it's that haughty mid twenties age when you still think you know it all and your opinions are ironclad. The most famous one that most people make is: "I'd never allow my children to do that."

Sure you won't.

Here are some of mine. (The ones I can bear to admit to)

1. I will never buy whole bean coffee. My mother began buying whole bean coffee before I did and I was vocal in my ridicule. Folgers is FINE, I said. I drink too much coffee to pay that much for it, I said. What a pain in the arse, I said. Now I'm fully equipped with a grinder, an espresso machine and a french press. How I ate my words. Or drank them, as the case may be. Now when I go to my FIL's place and he hands me a cup of Folgers coffee, I grimace inwardly at every sip and look at it as if it were an alien, seeking to destroy me. Shudder.

2. I will never spend four dollars on a cup of coffee. Uhhuh. It took me several years to become a Starbucks addict. I refused to step into the place. I laughed at all those espresso swilling people and thought it was just for the local rastas and college kids. Now we BUDGET for Starbucks. How the mighty have fallen.

3.I will never listen to rap/hip hop music. This one took longer. Then I heard Usher and Luda and Lil John do Yeah. Blew my head right off. Pretty soon my daughter was teaching me Soldier Boy dance, bopping my head to Lollypop, and wishing I too, could wear apple bottom jeans and the boots with the fur. (At over forty, I totally can't.) Some of my favorite artists now have the first name Lil.

4. I will never watch reality TV. Now my favorite shows are almost all reality TV. The Biggest Loser, Survivor, The Bachelor... the list goes on.

5. I will never cuss in front of my kids. Yeah. That one lasted until the fourth day after giving birth to my son as he cried in the middle of the night for another feeding. I said, and I quote, "OH sh*&. Not again." It just went downhill from there.

What things did you say you would never do... come on, join the eat your words fest.

Introducing Little Bear Bubbo Brown

2009-05-06T07:16:00.001-07:00

Awww, doesn't he look so sweet and innocent? We watched this kitten being born after a stray we took in turned out to be pregnant. Little Bear, as we called him, was the runt and we had to remove the other kittens periodically so he could get food. The other wouldn't let him eat. He turned out to be my daughter's cat and they have been together for the last eight years. Bubbo is a huge black boy (eunuch) with a roundy head,(did you know that you can separate cats into two groups? Roundy heads and pointy heads. Each have their good and bad points. Yes, I am a cat sterotyper.)

Inside the house, Bubbo is as sweet as you would like a cat to be. Affectionate, big purr, willing to sleep in any position as long as he's cuddled. He loves Megan more than life itself and will patter through the rooms screaming, I mean mewling, for her when she isn't here.

A quality cat.

But when he goes outside, he becomes something else entirely. He's the neighborhoods equivalent of feline mafia. A true gangsta. It's like he turns his baseball cap around backwards the minute he walks out the door. He does this hip-rolling swagger onto the porch and curls his little kitty lip in disdain as he surveys his domain. Godfather Kitty. Birds screech off in terror. Other cats tremble and hide their young. Even dogs avert their eyes and walk away from Bubbo. He fights, he sprays the neighbors tires, he kills things large and small, and leaves their heads in tribute outside Meggy's window.

Then he comes in and reverts back into a gentle, loving family man, offering up purrs, gentle paw pats and adoring head butts.(When cats butt their head up against your face because they are so in the mood.)

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde in feline form.

Late and Vamped

2009-05-04T08:09:00.000-07:00

First off, I seem to be late on everything lately. Been thinking a lot about how it's the little things that kill me... like the book that has been waiting to go to a chaptermate for two weeks. The boob squish appointment I have put off making for six months and now the teeth cleaning I haven't scheduled. WTH? Why can't I get it together? To top it all off, my muse seems to have been stricken with swine flu because she is totally absent. Totally.

You know how weird it is to not want to write anything? The ideas are there, but the need to get them all worked out isn't. I hope she gets back in shape soon, cause this is too odd to live with.

Anyway, GCC is touring Lucienne Diver's new book, Vamped. Check it out!

From “Valley Vamp Rules for Surviving Your Senior Prom” by VAMPED heroine Gina Covello:

Rule #1: Do not get so loaded at the after prom party that you accidentally-on-purpose end up in the broom closet with the surprise hottie of the evening,say the class chess champ who’s somewhere lost his bottle-cap lenses and undergone an extreme makeover, especially if that makeover has anything to do with becoming one of the undead.

Gina Covello has a problem. Waking up a dead is just the beginning. There's very little she can't put up with for the sake of eternal youth and beauty. Blood-sucking and pointy stick phobias seem a small price to pay. But she draws the line when local vampire vixen Mellisande gets designs on her hot new boyfriend with his prophecied powers and hatches a plot to turn all of Gina’s fellow students into an undead army to be used to overthrow the vampire council.

Hey, if anyone's going to create an undead entourage, it should be Gina! Now she must unselfishly save her classmates from fashion disaster and her own fanged fate.

About Lucienne!

Lucienne Diver is a long-time book addict who went to work for NYC’s Spectrum Literary Agency fifteen years ago to feed her habit. Recently, she traded in her high-rise for a lake view. She now lives in Florida and works for The Knight Agency (www.knightagency.net). Through various play-dates and in various coffee bars, on the backs of envelopes, carry-out bags and anything else within reach, including, sometimes, her checkbook, she's penned the serio-comic tale of what happens when a young fashionista goes from chic to eek

A Nightmare

2009-04-28T07:53:00.000-07:00

So I had this nightmare last night. Seriously. I began recieving rejections from editors we didn't even sub to. My agent and I were standing in front of the computer wondering what the heck was going on and then suddenly we were in a group of editors who were all laughing and pointing. It was like one of those dreams when you're caught naked in school. Totally humiliating.

Someone needs a spa day. Unfortunately, spa days have never been in the budget and with the current turn of economic events, I can't afford to mulch my garden, let alone get a facial.

I knew waiting wasn't good for the writer. Soon, I'll be completely batshit crazy. I have a vision of myself wrapped in mismatched shawls, walking through the streets of Portland, muttering to myself... "Goals, motivation, conflict, goals, motivation conflict..."

Writing careers should should come with a warning label: Caution: Writing novels can cause paranoia, depression and anxiety.

This explains the high percentage of alcoholism in famous writers.

Random Friday

2009-04-24T08:32:00.000-07:00

Bits o randomness that don't make a full blog:

1. I want to be stranded on a deserted island with all the members of The Ace of Cakes. With ovens. And endless ingredients. I'm just saying.

2. Son's laptop took a major dump while I was at sbux. Thankfully, I sent my wip to my desktop yesterday. How fortuitous.

3. I hate grocery shopping. I have to go grocery shopping today.

4. I hate waiting.

5. I have to wait a lot. In fact, anyone who hates waiting shouldn't be an author. The entire industry is built on it.

6. My skinny pants are getting tight on me. Have to start running again, no matter what foot feels like. Yet, I still feel like cake.

In Defense of Agents

2009-04-21T06:00:00.000-07:00

Been reading all the blogs popping up for and against literary agents. I'm not posting the blogs here because I'm reluctant to fan the flames, but boy howdy, some people sure have a lot of bitterness locked inside them. Against agents who, as I've learned, hold the keys to the promised land. And, unknown to me, these very same agents are both killing publishing and crushing the hopes and dreams of writers.

Say it isn't true!

I have a couple things to say on the subject. (You knew I did, didn't you?) One, I have never been so happy to have an agent as when I received my contract for Read My Lips. After perusing that monstrosity a couple of times, I was overjoyed to know that my agency's contract lawyer was going over it line by line and was on my side because I couldn't make head nor tails of it. And I consider myself a pretty smart person. In fact, I read it to the eighth graders last week as an example of why I NEED an agent.

Two, having a top notch agent doesn't necessarily mean that your career is going to be peachy. My agent couldn't even sell my first submission and she loved it. My second sub sold, but the third one didn't. So having one, or in my case, two, fabulous agents, doesn't mean I'm suddenly in publishing nirvana. But I certainly don't blame my agents for that.

The query system is what it is. I don't mind a well-trained intern reading my queries because I always do my research before sending them. It's the intern's job to separate the wheat from the chafe and trust me, agents get a lot of chafe. Thousands a year in fact.

I loved my first agent. I love my second agent. They are there to help me. They love books and love to read. It's a tough job--If they didn't love it, they wouldn't be doing it.

Yes, some worthy books will never see the light of day, but whoever said life was fair? Blockbuster books, some good, some not so much, keep the wheels turning for the rest of us. It seems to me that this is just more of the "man be keeping me down" mentality that really never got anyone anywhere.

Write a good book. Write a good query. Pray a lot. Rinse. Repeat.

Sign Me Up!

2009-04-16T07:07:00.000-07:00

The kids at Walt Morey Middle school were awesomeness personified. They made welcome signs, wrote great reviews of LIPS on the whiteboard and asked fabulous questions. Of course, hucking chocolate at them everytime they asked one helped.

Crazy, crazy fun and so much energy! I felt almost high when I finished and didn't want to go.

I wanna do this for a living. Where do I sign up? I'm actually working on a brochure to send out later in the year, so maybe I'll get some more gigs next year. Loved it!

In other news, my baby is engaged! They went to macaroni grill and her boyfriend drew a ring on the table... Megan started coloring it and he said, "Do you like that ring, or do you like this one?" Then he pulled out the ring from his pocket and opened the box. How sweet!

It's perfect for her:white gold with a diamond... simple, modern and completely Megan. Kid has good taste:)

Since they won't be married for years, I'm not too worried about their age. But we can look at wedding stuff now!

Now if I would just hear good news on some submissions, the day would be perfect!

Scrappy and Me

2009-04-14T03:15:00.000-07:00

So last night must have been raccoon smackdown in my neighborhood, because the dog would not shut up. I wanted to strangle him. Now, don't get me wrong. I love me some Scrappy Doo. God knows I put up with a lot from that dog. I have loved him through all of it--from "accidents" on the floor to tearing up the garbage all over the house some kind of trash frenzy, so no notes on how politically incorrect it is for me to say I want to kill me some wiener dog, because if I were really gonna kill him, I would have done so LONG before now.

And I can also hear people clucking, saying I should have trained the dog. Trust me, we tried. Hims is a dachshund. A stubborn, underground, pissing, crapping, sleeping hound in miniature. A hound that resisted training. We put him in the kennel at night now so we don't have to worry about his strageically-placed-right-where-we step-on-our-way-to-the-bathroom-accidents. So he barked batshit crazy at the coons from his kennel.

Anyhoo. THAT is why I am blogging at 3:30 am when I should be ASLEEP.

The dog didn't care that I have to finish up a presentation today. The dog didn't care that I have to make a cake for book club this evening, or that I have to go to work, write a chapter or put a roast on. All he knew was there was a RUCKUS out front and, dammit, someone should let him out so he could TAKE CARE OF IT!

Stoopid dog.

Starbucks doesn't open until 5:30 so I can't even go and work. Someone is going to be Grumpy McGrump today.

The Economy of Moi

2009-04-11T08:51:00.000-07:00

As I was heading to Starbucks this morning, I noticed that another one of my favorite stores had closed it's doors forever. Empty storefronts are becoming more and more common. The beauty shop where both my children got their first haircut, gone. The pet store where we bought our first dog, gone. The ice cream store we used to go to after getting our hair cuts and looking at the puppies in the window... gone.

You get the idea.

I suppose I'm as guilty as anyone in their demise... my children got older and started frequenting salons, we get our dog food at our local grocery store and began buying the cheapest ice cream available instead of splurging on a cone. My family is running scared people. We are watching how and where we spend our money. for us, that means hitting the best sales rather than store loyalty.

The publishing industry has had it's share of ups and downs. Right now, it's in a down. Way, way down. How does this affect me? As my agent goes out with my latest WIP, I hope for the best--editor excitement and an advance that will keep the debts away for another year--but I also prepare for the worst--mass of rejections and the sound of crickets along the information super highway.

But I keep at it. It's what I do.

A great piece on advances can be found in the NY times here.

But no matter how many storefronts are empty in once thriving neighborhoods, I sip my Starbucks, (A business I am personally keeping fiscally solvent) and get ready to open chapter two and write. No matter what the economy or the publishing industry does.

Brilliant

2009-04-08T07:46:00.000-07:00

If Homer wrote the Odessy via twitter: Check it out here.

I laughed out loud over this one!

I'm still struggling with the first chapter of my new WIP. It's really high concept and I want to do it justice which means more than one POV. So I am struggling along with third person, trying to get deep, deeper, deepest. I have some really good stuff, it's just a matter of hitting the right note right off the bat and getting the right POV for the beginning. Fun stuff. I love beginnings, even when I struggle. The possibilities are endless:)

Also looking for used copies of Elizabeth Bunce's A Curse Dark as Gold for the last book of book club for the year. The kids have done so well... I can't wait until next year!

Little Suzy's on the Up

2009-04-06T09:25:00.000-07:00

So dh and I rode the max train downtown last night. After getting off at Skidmore and rubbing elbows with a large contingent of street people, we found ourselves in front of Kells Irish Pub. Guinness, Lager, Shepard's Pie and an Irish jam session ensured the night started on the right foot. Met our friends in front of The Roseland Theater and much fun was had watching forty year old women manage their eighties finery.

The first band was good, the second band, The Leo Project , was fantastic and Tesla, as always, was phenomenal.

Too many beers, though. Me. Not Tesla.

Last night was a great way to start the week. This morning, not so much.

April Henry!

2009-04-02T06:57:00.000-07:00

I know it seems like I have done nothing but post fabulous interviews on the blog lately, but how can I resist the next author? Her book not only looks amazing, but she's a hometown author! I can't wait to read this for book club and have her come visit us! This is why-

About the book
When Ellie’s parents are busted for growing marijuana, the FBI gives her a choice: infiltrate the Mother Earth Defenders (MED), a radical environmental group, or her parents will go to jail. At first Ellie is more than willing to entrap the MEDics, but the more time she spends undercover—particularly with Coyote, the green-eyed MEDic that she can’t stop thinking about—the more she starts to believe in their cause. When talk turns to murder, Coyote backs out, but Ellie is willing to risk everything to save her family—even if it means losing Coyote and putting her own life on the line.

About the author
April Henry knows how to kill you in a two-dozen different ways. She makes up for a peaceful childhood in an intact home by killing off fictional characters. April had one detour on her path to destruction: when she was 12 she sent a short story about a six-foot tall frog who loved peanut butter to noted children's author Roald Dahl. He liked it so much he arranged to have it published in an international children's magazine.

By the time she was in her 30s, April had come to terms with her childhood and started writing about hit men, drug dealers, and serial killers. She has published six mysteries and thrillers, with five more under contract. Her books have gotten starred
reviews, been on Booksense (twice!), translated into four languages, short-listed for the Oregon Book Award, and chosen as a Quick Pick by the American Library Association.

April writes for both teens and adults. This month Face of Betrayal will be published. It’s the first in a new series for adult mystery series co-written with FOX legal anaylst Lis Wiehl.

What others are saying
Kirkus: "Romance and big explosions … the thrills and action will keep readers interested as she navigates her way between terrorists and self-centered Feds."

Booklist: "The contemporary mix of politics and thrilling action will grab teens, not just environmentalists, as Ellie must decide how to save her parents and save the earth. Romance adds to the conflict as she falls in love with gorgeous MED member Coyote, who is both an activist and an ardent pacifist. Both the MEDs and the FBI have good guys and bad guys, and this suspenseful story will spark discussion about what it means to fight for right “by any means necessary."

GCC Presents Jennifer Echols!

2009-03-30T17:58:00.000-07:00

I love Jennifer Echols!

From popular author Jennifer Echols comes a touching and romantic story about a troubled teenager and a rookie cop who just might be able to save each other—if they can save themselves first...

HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO?

All Meg has ever wanted is to get away. Away from high school. Away from her backwater town. Away from her parents who seem determined to keep her imprisoned in their dead-end lives. But one crazy evening involving a dare and forbidden railroad tracks, she goes way too far… and almost doesn’t make it back.

John made a choice to stay. To enforce the rules. To serve and protect. He has nothing but contempt for what he sees as childish rebellion, and he wants to teach Meg a lesson she won’t soon forget. But Meg pushes him to the limit by questioning everything he learned at the police academy. And when he pushes back, demanding to know why she won’t be tied down, they will drive each other to the edge—and over…

Taking readers on an unforgettable journey through the lingering effects of loss and the redemptive power of love, Going Too Far will appeal to fans of powerful and poignant teen novels by Deb Caletti and Sarah Dessen.

Jennifer Echols has written two romantic comedies entitled Major Crush and The Boys Next Door. She currently lives in Birmingham, Alabama.

The best laid plans...

2009-03-25T08:08:00.000-07:00

OMG! I just posted a huge blog on how I might have sprained or broken my foot while doing taxes and it just erased everything. Sigh. Suffice it to say, I am in a terminator boot.

Guess who won't be doing yard work this week?

An Answer From My Husband

2009-03-24T07:44:00.000-07:00

I came out the other morning and found my husband reading my blog, you know, the one where I lambast him for being so hot and hijacking the covers? This is what he had to say:

1. You'd think that someone who comes to bed colder than the polar ice caps and who slides their icy hands and feet onto my body while I'm trying to sleep would appreciate a little heat.
2. I hijack the covers and hold them because I am trying to escape your frigid body with a wall of wool and cotton.
3. I didn't bring that cat home. In fact, I didn't bring any of them home so if you have to get up a thousand times a night to quiet dogs and let out screaming cats, that's your own bloody fault.

Touche.

I'm seriously falling behind on life. I think that's what I get for making MORE my New Year's resolution. Maybe I wasn't cut out for more. I am behind on writing blogs,on reading blogs, on critting, on my house and on promoting. Next year, I am definitely going for LESS.

Enough said. Today, I am going to try to catch up on critting and blogs. Tomorrow, on promotions and house. Thursday is yard and writing.

That's my plan and I'm sticking to it.

Amanda Ashby: Secret Zombie Lover

2009-03-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

What if a Love Spell Was More Than You Bargained For?

ZOMBIE QUEEN OF NEWBURY HIGH
By Amanda Ashby

Love spells gone wrong, boyfriend-stealing cheerleaders, and Zombies who want to eat you for dinner. In ZOMBIE QUEEN OF NEWBURY HIGH by Amanda Ashby, love has never tasted— or rather felt— so good.

Tomorrow is prom, and all Mia wants to do is cast a love spell on her date Rob Ziggerman to keep him away from cheerleading goddess Samantha and save him all to herself. But somehow she ends up inflicting a zombie virus onto her whole class instead. At first Mia loves all the attention her classmates are giving her; treating her like a queen, compliments galore, and all the chocolate a girl could want. But then zombie hunter hottie Chase explains they are actually fattening her up. Why? Because in twenty-four hours, Mia will be the first course in their new diet. That’s what being the ZOMBIE QUEEN OF NEWBURY HIGH means. She’s sure she and Chase can figure something out, especially when the alternative means that her classmates and teachers will be feasting on her bones. But in the meantime, she’s suggests that no one wear white to tomorrow night’s prom, because she has a feeling that things could get very messy.

Doesn't that sound fabulous? Now, here's an interview with Amanda...

TB: Why zombies? You have a hidden fear of them, don't you?

Amanda: I have a not so hidden fear of everything scary! In fact whenever my husband tries to watch horror movies, I spend most of the time behind the couch!

TB: What are your favorite zombie movies?

Amanda: Shaun of the Dead - it is just so incredibly funny and if you watch a lot of UK comedy you will discover that the whole cast is made up hilariously funny actors and actresses!

TB: What are your favorite zombie books?

Amanda: You are So Undead to Me by Stacey Jay, Happy Hour of the Living Dead by Mark Henry Breathers, A Zombie's Lament by SG Browne and next up on the reading list is Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan.

TB: What would you do if attacked by Zombies? Are you prepared for that?

Amanda: I am so prepared for it. First stop I would make sure I don't look like the side-kick because side-kicks always get eaten first (it's the rules). Next I would make sure I have some good running shoes on as well as my handy little Zombie Survival Kit which is full of essential zombie stopping ingredients!!!

TB: What surprised you about writing this book?

Amanda: How much I related to my main character Mia. I never set out to write a blood and guts horror book (see above comment about being a scaredy cat) so really it was just about exploring how it would feel for a regular person to get into a very irregular situation! It was lots of fun!!!!!!!

About the Author:
Amanda Ashby was born in Australia and has spent the last ten years dividing her time between England and New Zealand. When she’s not moving countries, she likes to write books (okay, she also likes to watch television, eat chocolate and sit around doing not much, but let's just keep that between ourselves, shall we?). She has a degree in English and Journalism from the University of Queensland and is married with two young children. Her debut adult book You Had Me at Halo has been nominated for a Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice award. This is her first book for young adults. Visit her on the web at www.amandaashby.com.

Reviews
"Zombie Queen of Newbury High is a delightfully fun, fresh, and funny read! Amanda Ashby creates a highly likeable heroine in Mia Everett, who, despite her best intentions, turns her classmates into zombies. And with prom quickly approaching, she must find a way to undo it before, well before she gets eaten! Never again will you look at prom, your classmates, or even zombies in quite the same way! ~Alyson Noel, New York Times Bestselling author of Evermore

"Zombie Queen of Newbury High is a delicious treat! Who knew zombies could be both fun and funny? It's Zombilicious!" -- Michelle Rowen, author of Bitten & Smitten
"Zombie Queen of Newbury High is where popularity can turn you undead (with an unsettling appetite) and Prom will be a little dangerous this year. Amanda Ashby moves into the YA world with snapping prose and an entertaining high school mix of teen crushes, popularity drama, and a zombie squad. Zombies beware--you'll love to follow the twists and turns of this fresh and fun novel!" -- Kelly Parra, author of Invisible Touch

“Amanda Ashby's book, Zombie Queen of Newbury High, is filled with twists, turns and humor, sure to totally draw you in. I loved the fact that this read was more than your typical high school teen love story. If you're like me and can't get enough of books filled with mystery, suspense, with a dash of relatable relationship and friendship probs on the side, I def recommend picking up your own copy—you won't regret it!” -Jami Katz GirlsLife.com Book Club

Supergirls!

2009-03-16T17:40:00.000-07:00

I am pleased to offer up this interview with the fabulous Liz Funk, author of Supergirls Speak Out. I saw Liz on The Today Show a couple of weeks ago and was impressed with her knowledge and sensitivity. Check out this interview!

TB: Why do you think that the pressure to be a supergirl is so persuasive in our culture?
Liz: I think it's a two-pronged problem. The first issue is that there has never been so much pressure on girls, from the media, from their peer groups, and from their schools to be smart, accomplished, pretty, charming, rich-looking, and glamorous. The second issue is that today's young women don't have a sense of intrinsic worth--why they matter outside of what they look like, what they've accomplished, andhow others perceive them. It leaves them very vulnerable to wanting to please everyone and be a "good" girl.

TB: What traits do Supergirls have?
Liz: Supergirls are almost always very type-A, ambitious, goal-oriented young women. I found that frequently, Supergirls were very cognizant of their looks and put a lot of emphasis on having a boyfriend or having guys in their lives. Supergirls seem to have high hopes for themselves and although they're not overentitled, they like to see success come quickly.

TB: What can parents do to avoid having their daughter become a supergirl?
Liz: I think parents need to explicitly tell the young women in their lives that they matter! Girls are constantly bombarbed with unrealistic images of women in the media, and many girls get the message that if they want to be loved or to get attention, they need to be just as perfect as the charming, successful, nice girls they see on TV. As such, girls also need to have a strong grasp of media literacy: that is, understanding that almost everything we see on TV is scripted and airbrushed to perfection, and that girls shouldn't compare their lives to the fantasy lives they see girls leading on TV.

TB: Can you tell me some of the signs of a supergirl?
Liz: Well, that's the thing about Supergirls: it's very hard to tell from the outside if a Supergirl is struggling on the inside, because half of what makes being a Supergirl so difficult is that Supergirls make it look like they have everything under control and that their overachieving comes naturally to them. However, there are some signs and symptoms for friends and family of suspected Supergirls to spot,like excessive caffeine consumption, secret studying and exercising,being constantly exhausted, being irritable, and being obsessed with one's looks.

TB: What's next for you?
Liz: I just got really interested in screenwriting. I actually wanted to be a screenwriter far before I wanted to be an author--in middleschool and high school--and the Hollywood bug just bit me again, so I'm starting to work on some screenplays. Also, I've been slowly-but-surely working on a novel for the past year; it's a novel of social criticism geared towards twentysomething readers. We'll see what happens! My most immediate goal right now, though, is probably to graduate from college in May. I have a major case of senioritis,and I nee

Things that Irritate me About Sleeping With Husband

2009-03-12T08:25:00.000-07:00

Don't get me wrong, I love my husband. He's a wonderful man. But as I was tossing and turning last night I realized I no longer like to sleep with him. Here's why:

1. He's hot. Since I am always cold, you'd think this would be a good thing. But in the twenty years since we've been married he's morphed from a comfy heating pad into a hulking ball of fire. Honestly, sleeping with him is like jumping into a vat of boiling oil--while having a hotflash--in hell.

2. He's a cover thief. He not only steals the covers, he hijacks them and holds them hostage by throwing one leg on top of them. (Probably because he's hot.)This makes it difficult to move, like being wrapped in a straight-jacket. I can tug, pull and yank and they stay immobile.

3. His cat. I can take partial responsibility for this because I brought him the damn cat, but I had no idea how many sleepless nights this would result in. The cat loves him unconditionally. Searches for him through the house, screaming and then gazes at him with eyes full of adoration when he finds him. Of course, I've seen the cat gazing at a table lamp the same way, but I don't tell my husband that. The cat sleeps with us, then gets hungry (or too hot) and wants out. So I jump up to let him out and he freaks because he thinks I am going to throw him out of the bedroom, so he runs under the bed. After I crawl back under the covers, he remembers that he wants out. No short term memory. So he cries to get out, I try to let him out and then he hides again. I HATE THAT CAT.

4. Our bed is too small. We've both grown since we were first married and no matter how much weight I take off, the bed remains too small. Enough said.

So basically, I'm dreaming of the day when the kids leave so I can make a guest room out of one of their rooms. Now I know why the Bradys slept in separate beds. Smart people.

Relief and Hope

2009-03-10T10:32:00.001-07:00

I have a myriad of emotions going on today. So much so that if the men in white were within fifty feet of me, they would no doubt throw my arse in a straight jacket and cart me off. Like most writers, I am bat-crap crazy.

Huge sigh of relief when I sent Speed to my agent. Riley, Parker and company have left my psycho brain alone, no longer torturing me with scenes from their lives. Thanks for that. The thought, (that flittered through my mind like a peice of torn up paper), is that I could actually focus on my life. You know, things like running, work, and mopping the floor. But alas, that is not to be, because as soon as the crew from Speed left, the crew from Black took up residence, roasting weenies on the fires of madness that burns in my cerebral cortex.

Like I said, bat-crap crazy.

So I'm working on another synopsis and trying to get these nuts to leave me alone. Or maybe I'm the nut and my characters are the sane ones.

It's hard to tell.

Who are These People?

2009-03-06T13:45:00.000-08:00

And what are they doing in my home?

Being the parents of grown children is challenging. We are at the point (18 and 19) where they are independent, but not. For instance, we are still paying for their cell phones, electricity, food (when they eat at home) and in the case of our youngest, gas. My son pays for his own gas, college, and half his insurance. Daughter pays for half her insurance, clothes and coffee. (A habit that rivals mine, so it's not cheap keeping her in coffee. Ask her boyfriend.)

I don't get to see them much. A text here and there. You know, "Going fishing! TTYL!" Or, "I'm off to the beach with friends! Text you when I get there".

I want to go to the beach with friends.

I know they still live here because their rooms look lived in (i.e. messy) and usually have various components (X-box, laptop, TV, radios, etc.), left on. Their clothing still appears in the dirty laundry. Including my daughter's boyfriend's comfy clothes, which he keeps here to change into to when they watch movies or lounge around. Food disappears from the fridge and my gas card still disappears from my wallet.

Dirty dishes appear in the sink as if by magic. And yet, very seldom do clean dishes get put away by themselves. Where's the magic when you need it? Clean laundry gets rooted through, but rarely folded or put away. The sports section appears every morning in front of the toilet (EWWW) and I have to take it out.

I'm kind of starting to resent them.

For instance, I fold clothes and my daughter's lacy Victoria Secret panties are right next to my Walmart specials. We still get bills in the mail or delivered to our inbox from the college, iTunes and Verizon. But amazingly enough, the garbage never gets taken out. My makeup still gets used. In theory, I share a car with my daughter, but it's never here. The home phone is always off the hook and dead, in spite of both of them having their own cell phones. Nice cell phones. My son has an Envy, my daughter a Voyager and I have a three year old LG. Huh?

I still get little sticky notes on my computer asking me to make various doctor's/dentists appointments for them. Hey, I should just be thankful they are thinking of those things, but why can't they make their own appointments on their snazzy phones?

I shouldn't complain too much, both are doing well, have jobs, are educating themselves and learning how to fly. They better be. Cause I'm getting more and more tempted to push them out of the nest as time goes on.

mini me

2009-03-05T07:41:00.000-08:00

So my parents bought me a laptop the other day. A mini one. I'm still getting used to it, but it's so cute... it's like the big laptops got together and had a baby. Still getting used to typing on it and have to get an external disk drive to get word on it, but I think I'm gonna love it.

Sent Speed off to my cold reader. So excited! I can't wait to see what my agent thinks. I am working on plotting notes for my new book today. I love starting a new project. Everything is new and fresh before all the snarls come into play. I am not going to spill the beans on what this one is about... suffice it to say, that this one is totally character driven, so I need to create fully realized characters before I even jump into it. This one has to be handled so sensitively... we'll see how it goes.

am going to try to catch up on blogs today... I miss everyone!

Wish I Could Blog...

2009-03-03T04:45:00.000-08:00

But I can't. I woke up at 3 (AM, people, AM) and couldn't go back to sleep. Now I am stuck working on my book because it tasks me all the damn time and I have to go to my local Starbucks and swill gallons of overpriced, over sweet, cream and sugar and chocolate laden caffeine. Because, well, it's just that freaking good. The coffee, not the book, though I'm actually pretty pleased with the book, as well.

I was going to blog about my wonderful dinner with Jane Porter and other authors and readers and how cute Jane looks pregnant, but I'm still needing that coffee. So maybe later.

2009-02-26T11:24:00.001-08:00

Article on moi. Am having mixed reactions to it... What think you?

Check it out here.

FINISHED

2009-02-24T09:56:00.000-08:00

I am sitting in Starbucks, but I just had to share... I am finished with the rough draft of SPEED! I am many words from my projected goal so I still have adding and polishing to do, but at least I have a completed manuscript to work with. That's a lot!

It feels so good. This, people, is why I write!

Rah Rah

2009-02-21T10:41:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Shannon McKeldon, I found a way to get free wifi at Starbucks. You just have to load five bucks on your card and register it. If you show movement on the card monthly you can get two hours of free wifi a day. This is both good (yay, free wifi) and bad, because if I can browse the Internet, I don't write near as much.

I only wrote 1800 words in three hours yesterday during my writing time. Boo, hiss, boo. Usually I can write several thousand. On the up side, I only have about 8000 to go. I have a couple of plot snarls to straighten out, but am confident I can have the manuscript done by my deadline which is the end of Feb.

I am nearing that ending point and I am having trouble with not revealing enough to make the MC's motivations clear. This is what my CP's have been saying. This bugged me because there is a scene which is important to the character arc that would lose emotional impact if I revealed too much. A fine line to walk. So I am going to use flashbacks in order to keep the voice immediate and just show enough to reveal more to the reader without losing the emotional intensity. This will also add word count. YAY! Word count is good.

I've been a bad blogger because I haven't been able to read and comment as much as I used to, but best beloveds, I have been BUSY! Will try to catch up over the weekend.
MUAH!

WOW!

2009-02-18T12:56:00.000-08:00

Dizzy with business!

Ran my parents around yesterday and today and have to do it again tomorrow. Add in work and I haven't had a moment to breathe! A list of what's going on here. (Because I just know the mundane details of my life are so fascinating!)

* Wrote almost 3000 words on Monday.
* Got back a couple of crits that has me scratching my head in places. Will post more about that later.
*The local newspaper is going to be doing a story on me cause I'm just that damn interesting.
*My son is now volunteering at the center with me. Love that kid.
*Remember my foster babies? Am trying to get the mom to move into a CPAH property so they will have access to more services and I can keep an eye on my babies. Keep your fingers crossed she will get in.
*have to run. My second job starts in 45 minutes.

GCC Presents Wendy Toliver!

2009-02-16T07:13:00.001-08:00

I love Wendy Toliver's writing! So much fun!

Miss Match is Wendy Toliver’s second Simon Pulse Romantic Comedy. It was a 2007 finalist in the Romance Writers’ of America© Golden Heart® contest in the Young Adult category (under the title Cupid Girl).

About the Book!

Sasha Finnegan has always had a knack for setting people up, and at sixteen, she's turned her talent into an online business, molding high school crushes into true love. But Sasha finds her toughest match yet when hottie Derek Urban asks her to set him up with Sasha's gorgeous sister, Maddie. It's not that Derek isn't a good catch. In fact, after spending so much time with him, Sasha can't help but think he's perfect -- for her, that is.

Can Sasha push her feelings aside for the sake of her business? Or has this miss finally found her match?

About Wendy

Wendy Toliver lives in the Utah mountains with her three little boys, her husband, and other various wildlife. She graduated from Colorado State University with a BA in Speech Communication/Broadcast and has had a variety of jobs, from performing singing telegrams to working at an advertising agency.
Now a soccer (etc.) mom and the author of The Secret Life of a Teenage Siren and Miss Match (both Simon Pulse), she couldn’t be happier. Well, if she had a self-cleaning house, a Porsche, and an endless supply of chocolate-covered cinnamon bears, she just might be a tad happier. Visit her online at www.wendytoliver.com.

Excessive Speed

2009-02-12T10:18:00.001-08:00

Best. Thing. I've. Ever. Written.

Period.

GCC Presents Alyson Noel!

2009-02-10T19:14:00.000-08:00

I read Saving Zoe and I love Alyson's writing. Am going to pick this one up as soon as I can afford it!

St. Martin’s is proud to announce the debut of Alyson Noël’s first paranormal YA novel, EVERMORE (February 3, 2009; 0-312-53275-X), the first in her IMMORTALS series.
Sixteen-year-old Ever used to have two parents, a little sister, a dog, and a nice house in Oregon. She used to be a varsity cheerleader and go to school dances. But that was before the horrible accident that claimed the lives of her family.

Now Ever blares the Sex Pistols through her headphones and hides under her hoodie in class. She doesn’t need to listen to hear, or see to know. All she needs is to touch someone to know their entire life story, not to mention always seeing their auras and hearing their thoughts. She’s been branded a freak at her new high school in Laguna Beach as she goes out of her way to avoid human contact, but everything changes when she meets Damen Auguste.

From the moment Ever first looks at Damen, she feels an instant recognition. He is gorgeous, exotic and wealthy, and he holds many secrets. Damen is able to make things appear and disappear, he always seems to know what she’s thinking—and he’s the only one who can silence the noise and the random energy in her head. She doesn’t know who he really is—or what he is. Damen is equal parts light and darkness, and he belongs to an enchanted new world where no one ever dies, and nothing is as it seems…

Alyson Noël is an Orange County native and now lives with her husband in Laguna Beach, CA. She is also the author of Saving Zoë, Cruel Summer, Kiss & Blog, Faking 19, Art Geeks and Prom Queens, Laguna Cove, and the adult novel Fly Me to the Moon. For more information, please visit her website at: www.alysonnoel.com

Starbucks is pissing me off

2009-02-09T09:43:00.000-08:00

So I totally blew off almost my entire weekend of obligations in order to write. I still made it to Spanish and I made it out to mentor Harley, but other than that I wrote my arse off. Twenty-four new pages people! Not bad for a weekend.

A small rant:

Dear Starbucks,

How I love thee, let me count the ways: I love your coffee, and the marraige of chocolate and espresso in your espresso truffle is a work of art. I love the comfy chairs, I love the number of electrical plug ins you provide, and I love the back to the womb decor. But I have to say, with all honesty, that your lack of free wifi really pisses me off. Frankly, I don't mind paying almost five bucks for a supurb cup of coffee, but when you try to soak me for more with your AT&T internet services... well, that just hurts my feelings. I know you are going through some financial difficulties right now, but come on, surely you can afford to give your devoted customers free wifi for their loyalty. I'm just saying.

Love, Teri

GCC Presents: Diana Wallach

2009-02-05T08:02:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I missed this series! Where was I? I am going to have to put it on my to buy list!

About the Book...

Mariana Ruiz thought she left her summer fling in Puerto Rico, that is until she finds Alex sitting across from her at the breakfast table. Living two doors down from her visiting old flame isn’t easy, especially given the unresolved sparks still lingering for her locker buddy Bobby—and they don’t exactly go unnoticed.

Her best friends are little help as Madison deals with her IM-only “boyfriend” and Emily sinks into secret mode after her parents’ recent breakup. The only relationship that seems to be working is her estranged aunt Teresa who’s tying the knot on New Years with Mariana and her cousin Lilly as bridesmaids. But the last wedding detail left unplanned is who will Mariana kiss at midnight?

Strained friendships, stolen kisses, and secret loves create plenty of surprises to unfold before the New Year’s bells start ringing…

About Diana...

Diana Rodriguez Wallach’s debut novel, Amor and Summer Secrets, is the first in a young adult series published by Kensington Publishing in September 2008. The sequels to the series, Amigas and School Scandals and Adios to all the Drama, were released in November 2008 and January 2009, respectively.

Born to a Puerto Rican father and a Polish mother, Diana has experienced the cultures her characters inhabit, and many of the multi-cultural themes expressed in her novels are based on her personal background.
Diana holds a journalism degree from Boston University, and has worked as a reporter and as an advocate for inner city public schools. Her first novel, Amor and Summer Secrets, sold to Kensington Publishing on Fat Tuesday 2007 while she was at Mardi Gras wearing beads and a feathered mask.

She currently lives in Philadelphia with her husband Jordan and her cat Lupi, who was rescued from a shelter in Harlem. Diana enjoys traveling, watching bad TV, reading great novels, practicing yoga and cheering on the Philadelphia Eagles.

A plea for books

2009-02-03T12:43:00.000-08:00

Hi all,

I have to come up with five copies of the book, The Mother Daughter Book Club, by Heather Vogel Frederick. We meet in seven days and I only have four (which Heather donated herself.) If anyone has a copy they can send, I will be oh, so grateful! Heather is actually coming to the community center to sign them next month and would love for all my kids to have some. Remember, this is a low income housing development and I'm trying to give these kids a start to their own personal libraries. Contact me off blog at diddymon(at)verizon(dot)net if you can help me out.
Thanks!!
Teri

EDIT: Got my books! Thanks!

Random Musings

2009-02-02T06:13:00.000-08:00

I really didn't want Pittsburgh to win. Enough is enough already.

Can you have phantom tooth pain? Like pain in a tooth that's no longer there? Cause my jaw still hurts. Oh, and for those interested, it was a chronically abscessed tooth. The dentist couldn't figure out why because the rest of my gums look great. Anyway. He took it. And now it hurts and they didn't give me enough bloody freaking vicodin and someone in pharmacy is gonna hear about it today, yessiree bob!

(Deep breath)

Saturday afternoon was spent mentoring a high school girl. Me and two other authors are walking her through the trials and tribulations of writing her first book for her senior project. She's pretty darn talented and it's a blast watching someone figuring out things for the first time. So fun.

Wrote a scene yesterday that I had been putting off. not sure how much I'm going to keep, but it felt good to push through it!

Okay, I'm outtie. I have an article due and I am going to try to run today. Or walk.

Ode to a Tooth

2009-01-29T10:56:00.000-08:00

Dear Internets,

They took my tooth.

As if I didn't have enough on my plate, they had to go and take my tooth. I changed my mind half way through, and wanted to tell the dentist, "Noooo! Stop! It's ATTACHED! IT'S ATTACHED!"

He took it anyway. Now my mom and I are both on liquid diets. How's that for justice?

Old age is catching up to me.

In other news, I am done with the partial of Speed and sent it off to my agent. Now I'm going to try to whip out the rest of it. I want to get started on the next project.

How's everyone else doing?

Signed: Toothless in Portland.

Something so Simple

2009-01-26T05:51:00.000-08:00

I've been working on SPEED, trying to get the proposal as perfect as I can before sending to my agent. I am almost done with it and sent to a chapter mate for a cold read.

WOW. One, she caught a lot of stuff no one else did. Two, she made a simple suggestion that totally streamlined the first chapter. It was good before, it is darn near perfect now. It was just a simple switching of scenes. She told me that after the first four paragraphs, I should go to the second scene and then put the first scene second.

My mind was blown. Blown, I tell you.

Fresh eyes make a world of difference. Of course, she hasn't read the manuscript thing till her eyes were bleeding. She doesn't go to sleep with lines from the book repeating themselves over and over and over.

Welcome to my freakshow.

Hoping to get this out this week. As long as there are no kid issues, no parent issues and no work issues, I should be able to do it.

Wish me luck!

another quicky

2009-01-22T14:31:00.000-08:00

Mom came through her surgery just fine. I have been running around, taking care of my dad and learning how to take care of Mom when she comes home. Oh, and Spanish homework and writing....

Anyway. All is well.

The Week Ahead

2009-01-19T12:42:00.000-08:00

Won't be on much this week unless I sign on at my parents. This is why:

Monday: Write all day.
Tuesday: meeting with guidance counselor with dd, eyebrows waxed, free make up at mall, go to work for three hours.
Weds: Take Mom to hospital for surgery. Go get dad and take him to hospital. Wait for surgery to be over. Stay with Mom. Take dad home. Stay with Dad. Check in with my family. Do Spanish homework.
Thursday: Visit Mom in hospital. Take care of Dad. Write article. Run. Check in with my family. Do counseling class homework.
Friday: Visit Mom. Take care of dad, run.
Sat: Spanish class. Bring Mom home. Take care of Mom and Dad. Turn in Article. Hand parental care off to my sister.
Sunday: Sleep, run, counseling class.

Yeah.

Real Quick One

2009-01-18T09:00:00.000-08:00

www.pcwebdoc.com

The best secret to have in your arsenal. They found a ton of crap (spyware, viruses, malware) on my computer. They got rid of them all and cleaned up my computer. It is now running better than it ever has. I think I'll do a check up with them every six to eight months. Love them. Way more than the Computer Geeks. And they don't come in your house!

Calling in Reinforcements

2009-01-16T22:02:00.000-08:00

I'm losing the battle. It's bigger than me. It's bigger than Panda or Spysweeper.

Tomorrow, I'm calling in the big guns. Let's see if that malware is bigger than than the geeks at PC Webdoc.

(cue evil laughter)

Adware

2009-01-15T08:30:00.000-08:00

I've been attacked by Adware and instead of running, going to work and staying calm yesterday, I battled for the life and soul of my computer. I don't think it's over yet, but I will be victorious. Wish me luck, my friends, I'm heading to the front again.
Teri

A Quicky

2009-01-13T10:50:00.000-08:00

Just a quick blog because, well, I'm procrastinating on diving into the pamphlets and handouts I've gathered to find my parents (and myself) some resources for the challenges they are facing.

Just came off a four day juice fast. Before you pull "disapproving face," I did a lot of research from many different sources before I did it. I'm not stupid, nor do I have any kind of eating disorder, nor do I have the personality to develop an eating disorder. And it was very, very good for me. It showed me how many times a day I think about food even if I'm not really hungry. It showed me the difference between fake hunger(ie. boredom, stress, hormones) and real hunger. It also gave me a very energized, light feeling. As I know from my experience with nicotine addiction, sometimes you just have to stop something cold turkey, so to speak, to get a real handle on it. Of course, food isn't something we can give up forever and I am very glad to be chowing on fruit and vegetables and yogurt, today.

I went running this morning, something I'd abstained from while fasting, and was really shocked to see how far and how long I could run. I thought for sure I'd be a rung out rag after the fast, but no.

It's nice to do something good and healthy for myself with all the rest of the craziness in my life. Usually, I bake up a batch of cookies and eat ten of them when I'm stressed out. Doing what I'm doing seems a lot healthier to me!

Must run, pamphlets await!

Avoiding Overwhelmed

2009-01-12T06:43:00.000-08:00

I hate living my life overwhelmed. That pit in the center of my stomach. The racing mind as I try to think of everything and knowing I probably forgot something vital. The anxiety. The irritation when others interrupt me.

I really hate it.

That's why when I got a full grasp of my MORE for the month of January, I tried very hard not to let it get to me. Even when I look back and realize I didn't write once on my WIP last week. Not once. I worked on career related stuff, but I didn't ever get to the creative part of what I do. That's tough.

In the middle of all the chaos, and believe me it's freaking nuts, I am doing something for myself and detoxing. I'm trying to fit running and yoga into my schedule. I'm trying to deep breathe and calm myself when I get too stressed. Take every day as it comes.

BREATHE IN BREATH OUT

My counseling group met for the first time since December last night. I'm learning so much! I hope to take a week long intensive at some point this year and am thinking of creating a writing workshop using it's principals. I know it's deepened my writing. I also started my Spanish class on Saturday in order to add to my skill set and be more useful at my job.

BREATHE IN BREATH OUT

Huge transitions on the home front too as my children make their first flutters toward adulthood and my parents face life without quite as much freedom. But this is life. This is what it's all about. Transitions and changes and growth. It's what gives writers fodder for their stories. What would a novel be without transitions, changes and growth? It's why I write and hopefully will find more time to do that this week.

BREATHE IN BREATH OUT

GCC Presents Eileen Cook!

2009-01-10T07:08:00.000-08:00

So many books, so little time...

What Would Emma Do? by Eileen Cook

About the book:

Thou shalt not kiss thy best friend’s boyfriend…again….

There is no greater sin than kissing you best friend’s boyfriend. So when Emma breaks that golden rule, she knows she’s messed up big-time. Especially since she lives in the smallest town ever, where everyone knows everything about everyone else….and especially because she maybe kinda wants to do it again. Now her best friend isn’t speaking to her, her best guy friend is making things totally weird, and Emma is running full speed toward certain social disaster. This is so not the way senior year was supposed to go.

Time to pray for a minor miracle. Or maybe, just maybe, it’s time for Emma to stop trying to please everyone around her, and figure out what she wants for herself.

What others are saying:

“Sassy and sly and sweet all at the same time, this book made me laugh out loud.” – Meg Cabot author of the Princess Diaries

“Not since Judy Blume’s Margaret introduced herself to God has there been such a funny, geuine, conflicted, wanna-be-sort-good-maybe-later girl as Emma. Eileen Cook’s tone as she takes on the big ones – life, love, faith and friendship is pitch perfect.” – Jacqueline Mitchard author of Deep End of the Ocean and Midnight Twins

“Smart and fun and full of heart.” – Sarah Mlynowski author of Bras and Broomsticks

About the Author:

Eileen Cook spent most of her teen years wishing she were someone else or somewhere else, which is great training for a writer. When she was unable to find any job postings for world famous author, she went to Michigan State University and became a counselor so she could at least afford her book buying habit. But real people have real problems, so she returned to writing because she liked having the ability to control the ending. Which is much harder with humans.

You can read more about Eileen, her books, and the things that strike her as funny at www.eileencook.com. Eileen lives in Vancouver with her husband and two dogs and no longer wishes to be anyone or anywhere else.

Three Things In One

2009-01-08T11:17:00.000-08:00

1. Sometimes I have trouble sleeping. I go to sleep fine and then wake up at one or two or three and can't sleep till the morning. This is cyclic.

2. Last night I woke up at 1:30 am and couldn't get back to sleep until 6:30 am.

3. I didn't get enough sleep and my day is shot and I'm in a horrible mood.

There. I did my three things.

Three Things

2009-01-07T08:53:00.000-08:00

Just realized I'm not very interesting. Ah well, too late to change now.

1. I have all four wisdom teeth. My orthodontist told me when he took off my braces that every dentist I went to for the rest of my life would want to yank them out, but unless I was having problems I should tell them to bugger off, there was plenty of room. He was right on all counts.

2. I don't have very many RL friends. I actually have two best friends and that is pretty much it. I just don't have time for more. I have a lot of acquaintances, and people I like, but real friendship takes time and that is a commodity that is hard to come by.

3. I am a woman who knows how to say no. No people pleaser here, thank you very much. My dh thought I was an anomaly until I showed him a study that said the happiest women are those who can say no. HA!

Another Three for the Week of Three

2009-01-06T09:22:00.000-08:00

Another three random things about me.

1.I really hate changing light bulbs. I have no reason or excuse for this, I just do. If it weren't for my dh, I would be living by the light of my computer screen.

2. I have voices that live in my head. No, not just character voices, which writers know is normal--no matter what other people think-- but a mean voice that says, "you suck!" and the nice voice that says, "No, you don't!" Which one I listen to is totally dependent on how my writing went that day.

3. I used to be a white wine drinker, but now strongly prefer red wines. I tried a Riesling over the holidays and almost gagged. So sweet! I love pinots and merlots and some pinky wines. Other than that. Blech!

The Week of Three Things

2009-01-05T05:06:00.000-08:00

Okay, everyday for the next week I am going to reveal three things about myself that you may not know. Not sure why I'm doing this... mostly because my first week of MORE, entails MORE busy.

1. Evidently, I am a brilliant scratcher. Just ask my family. All I have to do is touch my husband's back and he hunches over, refusing to move until I give his back a scratch. My son is pretty much the same way. My daughter loves watching movies while I scratch her legs and my poor wiener dog is so addicted to my scratching, that all I have to do is make scratching motions with my hands and he comes flying across the room. I don't know what to attribute this rare talent to... It can't be my nails because I don't take care of them so they are always different lengths. Who knows, but when you have it, you have it.

2. I love peanuts with beer. I became addicted to this fine culinary treat after attending a Seattle Seahawks football game a few years ago. Before that I wasn't a huge football fan and had never been a peanut lover. Now I am both.

3. I have a new agent. I am now being repped by the fabulous Amy Tipton from Fineprint Literary. I can't even tell you how lucky I feel to have signed with her. She has all the qualifications I want in an agent!