Balloon Lament: A Cautionary Tale

I received a green balloon when I got off my braces.  This magic balloon was filled with the most amazing helium.  It didn't lose air for the longest time.  My girls really liked it.  Jules asked if she could have it and I said sure.  What do I care about balloons?  Mia then put a cute face on it.  They named him "Greeny" because he was green.  Makes sense.  The whole thing remembered me of the Meep episode of Phineas and Ferb.

I didn't know how important Greeny would become to the family.  The girls played with him as if he was the long lost brother they never had.  Yesterday Mia came to me very concerned.  Greeny was getting smaller and losing some air.  He was only floating half as high. It was a hard reality for her to face.  Sometimes balloons lose their float.

She asked me how to get him high again.  I mentioned maybe if he was in a warm place.  She got a few ideas of what to do.  I found Greeny near the vent...

I found him close to the Christmas tree...

But my favorite was wrapped in my new electric throw...

After a few different attempts she then asked if she could go to Zurcher's and get a new balloon for New Year's.

Sure!  Why not?  It's only a balloon right?  It's not like I'm replacing a pet or something.

I took both my girls over there today and had them each pick out 2 balloons:

• Julia naturally picked a pink one and purple one now named Pinky and Pearl.
• Mia picked an orange one and blue one now named Tangy and Smiley.

What a cheap date!  It was better than Disneyland!  4 bucks down.  Easy Peesy!

The first thing both of them did when they got their balloons home was taking my awesome Magnum Sharpie and drawing cute faces on them.

I helped Julia with hers, because Mia refused to put eyelashes on the smiley-faces.

Mia finished with Tangy and placed a cute smirk on his face.  Then she worked on Smiley.  She drew a very big grin on his face, hence the name "Smiley."  I was in my bedroom when I heard the "POP!"

Instant crying!  Mia was hysterical.  Poor Smiley hit a rough edge on the ceiling and popped without me even getting the chance to see his smile.

Life lesson learned:

Mia and Tangy after their tragic lose.

1. Prepare your children now for Balloon accidents.  Balloons don't last forever.
2. Buying Balloons is like adopting a child.
3. Be careful when putting smiley-faces on balloons.  You make them cute and then they have a personality.  Soon they are sitting at the dinner table with you and begging you for money.
4. A balloon can be a kids' best friend, just ask Doofenshmirtz and his best friend "Balloony." 
5. Have smooth ceilings.

Tape the Season!

For anyone that received my Christmas card probably laughed when I said my Mia tapes everything.  Yes.  She has a serious taping problem.  She's a Tape-holic!

Tape is Magic!  Tape can do everything.  It can fix cocoa mugs.  It's good for wall decorations... and broken zippers... and restaurant signs.... and taping the cat's legs together.  Tape is an amazing invention.

This last week I have been busy with my writing and I let me girls have the freedom of a messy room and wearing jammies all day.  What I neglected to do was put away the tape.

I walked into my daughter's bedroom to find my girls covered in stripes.

You know the book where the girl doesn't like veggies and she turned all striped.  That is basically what I saw.  My girls (Mia being the mastermind) had stripped to skivvies, taken scotch tape and wrapped it around their arms and legs.  Then had taken markers and colored the tape best they could, which was not that good, since the right side was colored with the left hand.  They had also found the Christmas bows and placed them on their body.

Mia stood up to show off her new skin.

Mia: "Hey Mom!"

Me: "What in the world...?

Jules:  "It was Mia's idea."

Me: "I can tell that."

Mia: "Look Mom!  I'm a Christmas Prezzie!"

Me:  "Good thing.  Santa will be very glad, since he won't need to stop here for Christmas."

Jules, my 5 yr old, quickly started ripping off the tape and went to the bathroom to wash off her body, continually saying it was Mia's idea.

Mia just looked at me and said, "It's okay Mom.  He doesn't have to wrap my present.  Santa will appreciate my creativity."

Remember the Magic of Santa

Parents lose the magic of what it is like to be a kid; to not understand all the rules, like how gravity keeps us on the ground or where wishes go when you blow dandelions.

I think it is the same with Santa Claus. 

When I was 5 my mother and I set out tiny little furniture next to a tree we called the Fairy Tree.  I made a tiny little bed out of tissue with a cottonball pillow.  We placed windchimes on a branch, which my mother callled fairy bells - when they chimed that meant a fairy was near.  This was magic my mother taught me - my mother, a grown woman who knew how gravity worked and how dandelions reproduce in the yard.  She is the one who taught me to believe in magic.  She is responsible for leading my imagination down its artistic path.

Santa is not much different.  Just take away the comercialism of Christmas and remember the sweet magic of believing in the unbelievable.  Let your children dream, imagine, and believe, so when your children have children the magic of Christmas will be there.

Just ask the question... Do you BELIEVE?

More Adventures in Awesomeness!!

News! News! News! 

It's never a boring time with me.  There is always something crazy happening in my life.  Besides stuffing myself like a Turkey Dinner this holiday, I also did something a little insane.

What could it be??? you ask....

Let's take some questions from the audience...

• Did you win the lottery?  sadly no, but I feel like I did.
• Did you get your braces off?  - I WISH.  My news isn't that cool, but on that note, they will come off in DECEMBER! Santa is delivering my Christmas wish a little early.
• Did you finally get that gum out of the carpet?  Nope, but better than that - I REPLACED IT!

Have you given up yet??  No???

• Did medical science decide to freeze my embryos for future generations to bask in the presence of awesome me?  Umm... no, but that would be cool.  And on that other note, no I'm not pregnant, but thank you for thinking that I could.
• Did you get your midnight tickets for THE HOBBIT?  OF COURSE!! And my shirts are hot and ready to feel the magic, but that's not it, though it's cool too.

Oh.... did you give up? Fine, I will tell you.

I decided to try and get my book published and guess what?  It worked.  I am now a contracted author with Xchyler Pubishing. (it's pronounced Skyler, for those of you who are thinking about some crazy baby name spellings).  I'm just getting started, but they are super excited to have me with them.

Next you'll see my very own theme park in Florida.  Cool huh?

If you have read my story and know the genre, just take a look at the website and you'll know my book is a perfect fit. http://xchylerpublishing.com/

Wish me luck!!!

Sitting With Dinosaurs

So called "Cute" party people.

I thought it would be an amazing idea to take my daughter for her ninth birthday to our bland new Natural History Museum.  This was a very appealing idea to my nerdy daughter and also my equally nerdy geologist husband.  We took a few of her friends, most of them very cute and not as nerdy, to this amazing museum.

The museum is designed in a rather tricky fashion - if you take the elevator to the top you can walk down the exhibits and see about EVERYTHING!

Watching all the heathen children scamper about in all the kid-friendly exhibits was fun and exhausting, but mostly fun.  Finally when you are walking down to the bottom floor you reach THE DINOSAURS!

Please note the tall Dinosaur at the end of the picture that stretches its neck high to the ceiling, "The Apatosaurus."

As we reached near the bottom I was rather distracted by a glass floor showing the excavation site of the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry.  

My sister minutes before the incident.  Notice the large leg in the back?

As I looked closely at the floor I lost my footing and stumbled backward.  If you notice the tall railing in the back, my hand grabbed it thinking I had a sure post behind me - however, what I had was a small tripping fence that I fell flatly over INTO THE EXHIBIT!  I was sitting bottoms down inbetween the Allosaurus and the gigantic Apatosaurus.  I looked over just to see the tall monster swaying by my human intrution.

I added this picture of"Breaking Dancing Alexa" as an illustration of the floor, the railing and the small fencing holding in the dinosaurs.

And then it dawned on me... I need to get out of here!  If this dinosaur topples I AM GOING TO BE ON THE NEWS!  This was trouble. 

I look over, no one else in the entire group saw me fall.  A few of the girls saw me.  "What are you doing in there?" one asked.  Good question.  I quickly tried to slide out undetected, but it was not as easy as falling in.  The dinosaurs were still moving and I thought every vibration might create the great extinction of the dinosaurs, from the NHMU.  But without help, I managed to get out of there without much humiliation from the others. I only had the long bruise across my butt to prove my personal assault on the extinction of the fossil giants - which I will NOT post on this blog... but trust me, it's there.

Halloween Speaks

I thought tonight I would sit down and read a "SPOOKY" Halloween story with my two girls, since Halloween is only a week away and it has been so gloomy and autumn-ish.  What did we read?

The Spider and the Fly
Awesome Tony DiTerlizzi's interpretation of the classic poem.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/601598.The_Spider_and_the_Fly

At the end of the poem, on the very last page is a letter written by the spider, since we know what happened to the fly.

The last phrase says this, "Take what has transpired within these pages to heart, or you might well find yourself trapped in some schemer's web."

Mia stops, looks all excited and re-reads this line.

Mia: "Mom, that's an Idiom."

Me: "What?"  (she is eight after all)  "What do you know about idioms?"

Mia: "It means that you should watch out or someone will take you."

Me: (stumped)  "A lot of adults don't know much about idioms.  When did you learn about idioms?"

Mia:  "Hello Mom... Second Grade..."

Me: "Well of course."

Mia:  ".....and Martha Speaks."

I knew PBS would educate my children.  Hooray for IDIOMS and MARTHA SPEAKS!
Thank you PBS!

Storytime with Daddy

It was my husband's turn to read to my five year old Jules before she went to bed.  I listened from the living room as I typed on my laptop.  This is what I heard.

Jules: Let me pick out the book, Daddy.

Daddy: What? Barbie, A Fairy Secret?  Where did we get this crap?

Jules: Please Daddy? (very charming)

Daddy:  *sigh*  "It was the opening night of a new movie starring Barbie and Raquelle. Raquelle was the first to arrive at the theater. 'Raquelle, we're so thrilled you could make it!' gushed the reporter. Suddenly, Barbie and Ken walked down the red carpet..."  Really?  This is lame.  Did you mom buy this?

Jules: Come on Daddy. Read it.

Daddy: "Furious that her spotlight was stolen, a jealous Raquelle stepped on Barbie's dress."

     I could hear the disgust rising in his voice, but he kept reading.

Daddy: "Barbie's stylists,"... Stylists? "Carrie and Taylor, rushed to the rescue.  Barbie didn't know it, but the two girls were really fairies from a secret world called... Gloss Angeles????"

Jules: Ummm.... Maybe I should pick another book.

A Lesson in Fashion

I am full of excuses...

My first, that I attended girl's camp for a week and left my very patient husband with my two girls for the week, in which he went and bought clothes for them, because not enough were packed - my fault.  He picked what he thought were very fine matching outfits, but that I later discovered - something that I have never told him - that he bought my eight yr old pajamas without knowing it.

Second, that since the school year I started working very early in the morning and don't have the opportunity to get my two girls off to school.  This leaves my once again, very patient husband, the opportunity to get them dressed and do their hair on his own.  I have tried to be thoughtful and get everything ready for them, so he will not need to pick out any clothes or worry about matching socks - I will take care of all.

Which leads to number three - sometimes I am run late - and who could blame me at such an hour.  My five yr old I usually have nothing to worry about.  Jules is fashionable and matchy, though a little flashy for a Kindergartener.  She likes to dress up in sparkly do-dads and, thank heavens, she brushes her hair.  No severe cause for alarm.

Eight yr old Mia is a completely different character.

The other day she did something I feared - she wore the previously mentioned pajamas to school.  She told me when I picked her up,

Mia: "You know what, Mom?  I think you are right.  I think these are pajamas."
Me: "And why do you think that?"
Mia: "Someone in my class has the same pajamas.  She told me."

I'm mortified, but she has such charisma that this didn't bother her in the slightest.  I actually think that she likes being the odd one in class.

This morning was another such morning for me; flitting out of the house in the wee hours without a thought to what my daughters would wear, remembering near lunchtime that I had not set out their clothes and wondered how my husband ended his morning.

When I picked up my Jules from Kindergarten she looked great - picking out her fashionable "Jeggings" and her favorite bright animal shirt.  Mia, however, when I saw her I started to laugh.  She had dressed herself in blue and gray plaid shorts, a red and orange and yellow tie-dyed shirt with japanese character writing on it and a big monkey of the front, a shirt she grabbed from my closet I might add, and that hung around too big for her little shoulders, a baseball cap she had stuffed her hair in, creating a large ball of tangles, and very obvious mismatched socks - one long florescent polka-dotted sock and one small striped ankle sock.

I asked her:
Me: "Where was you dad this morning?  He let you wear this to school?"
Mia: "He doesn't care what I wear, Mom, just that I'm dressed."

I thought about what she was wearing:
Me: "I don't mind that you want to be different--"
Mia: "I don't like matching Mom."
Me: "I understand.  But I think there needs to be a limit.  Maybe just one thing at a time. You ook just like Junie B. Jones."
Mia: (all excited) "I know!  Cool huh?"

She didn't say much to me about it until later when she came up and said,

Mia: "I want to break a record."
Me: "What do you mean?"
She looks at her socks...
Mia: "I want to keep my socks on for a week."
Me: "Mia, that's gross."
Mia: "Well, I'll change them up, like I will put this sock on the other foot, so people don't know, they will think I am wearing the match or something."
Me: "Well, can I at least wash them during the week?"
Mia: "No, Mom, that ruins the record."

So, I have learned my lesson:

1. I must deal with the fact that my daughter wants to personify any title character created by Judy Bloom or Barbara Park.
2. I will need to wake up earlier in the morning and make sure that my girls have clothes and socks that MATCH.
3. And I will educate my very patient husband, the good man that he is, that outfits for girls, even one with cute cupcakes on them, are not made by JOE BOXER.

Insurgent Review

Insurgent by Veronica Roth
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

First thing... I loved LOVED Divergent, and I have had this book since it's release afraid that it wouldn't meet up to the first. So here I am finally finishing it today months later and sadly, I am really on the fence about this. Not in the fence, not outside the fence... I'm right in the middle. Didn't love it or hate it, just ....huh.... so there it is.

I would like to say somethings about it.

First, I had to give Ms. Roth some credit. The writing was not explicit. I felt Tris was Divergent through the style of writing as you are in her head the whole time her thoughts and actions felt natural and normal. I liked that. First person - present is hard to pull off if you don't do it correctly and she dida great job at making the writing and speech natural. I was emotionally connected to her struggles, for the most part. And it is hard to write fight scenes, so kudos there.

But can I just say...

There was way too much arguing. I think the author was creating tension and drama between Tris and Tobias in order for the emotional draw at the end to have a bigger impact. So there again, I am very neutral about. Do what you have to do I guess.

This book is so unpredictable that it basically drove me kinda bonkers. Sometimes I felt as if it was rambling. But it was consistent rambling with a full scope and vision for the reader.

Here is my biggest problem - for as much as Tris was constantly evaluating human life and the consequences of her actions, the author made me not care about any of it. In the first book I started out with a clean palette and valued every character introduced. I was a little shocked at all the violence in Dauntless and the people that died. In Insurgent I couldn't care. It was a blood bath. The value of a human life was lost, which is crazy to say, since that is all Tris talked about, but there was too much dying. I was introduced to new characters and within a few pages they were dead. What happened was a became desensitized and detached to the inhumane reality these characters are going through, which was the whole point of the book. When JK Rowling killed off a character you felt it. Here someone jumps off the roof and I'm like, okay well I figured she'd go, she was too likable... NEXT!

And what I really wanted to know, of course what everyone wanted to know was what lies beyond the fence. his was something I picked up on in the first book, so it was my main draw. But, honestly, because of all the wasted time killing each other, when it FINALLY was revealed in a sense... I no longer care.

I think the point of these books is to value of human life, and if that is the point it should mean it.

View all my reviews
 

A Letter for the Tooth Fairy

You could easily call me "The Worst Tooth Fairy in the World" and I think my daughter knows this.  One time when the tooth fairy skipped our house, because she must have slept in - my daughter Mia actually slipped a paper under my door in the morning for the Tooth Fairy, who must have forgot her cash reward.  She's a sharp one. 

Well, today her tooth was very wiggly.  Once again the Tooth Fairy was unaware of how wiggly, since she was out of cash again.  It came out pretty fast after a morning of playing with it during church.  This girl was so excited. She told me that the first thing she was going to do was place the tooth under her pillow. She was in her room for quite awhile, but I didn't think anything about it. When Mia emerged she told me that she wrote the Tooth Fairy a letter and placed the tooth in a little box we had around the house. I even told her, "Who sweet of you to do. I'm sure the Tooth Fairy will love it."

Fast asleep, the time approaches for the "Tooth Fairy" to appear. After rummaging around for a good half hour for some money, the "Tooth Fairy" finally gets the nerve to find the box under the little, angelic, sleeping child.

I thought it was so cute of her to tape it all around. I was excited to open up my charming daughter's note to the Tooth Fairy.

Here is what the letter said:



For those who have a hard time reading the pencil font of an eight year old, let me help.

Dear Tooth Fairy, I don't want just somthing like .25. I want a dollar.
P.S. I need the money.
You're friend, Mia Thomas (marked with a sparkling tooth for the dot on the "I")

Under Construction!!!!

I am going to update my sad little blog to something a tad bit more professional.  I figured that I might need to be respectable.  It might happen??  Something about turning 30 makes you feel like you should wear "trousers" instead of jeans or stop shopping in the junior section looking for logo t-shirts, right????  Well, since we all know that will never happen I thought I might update my blog.  No worries.  I will still be ultra-cool - because... I'm the one writing it - HALLA!!

Discovering Classics... I'm SHERLOCKED!!

I'm been reading and watching a lot of Sherlock Holmes lately.  I discovered BBC's Sherlock, while at a Spur-of-the-moment stay at my SIL's house, where we literally watched the complete first season until 2:30 AM, or something like that.  (I highly suggest this.)  I can tell you, I have been Sherlocked, or Cumberbatched - whatever fits - and it is effecting my sleep, my eating habits, and my thought process, so much I am writing this post in a British acent.  What kills me is the cliffhangers and conspiracies, and the sheer fact that I won't be able to watch it for another 6 to 12 months.  ERK!!

So, I decided to download on my Kindle the Complete Stories of Sherlock Holmes, and surprise, I am loving it!  It's nice to discover a classic that I haven't ever thought of reading.  In high school and college I felt forced into reading certain classics, not of my taste, and they left me with an anomosity toward certain genres, which is unjust and unfair, but honest, and I never liked the classification of CLASSIC reads.

So what's makes something CLASSIC?  Just the fact that it's old?  It somehow lasted beyond Hitler's book burnings, or grandma's attic and now it's worth something?  I'm taking my magnifying glass and examining Classics up close and I think there is something more to it than age.  Classics are classics for a reason. I know people that didn't want to read Harry Potter because it was popular, but there is a reason why it's popular - It's good.  Maybe classics are the same way?  There is a prejudice toward them because it's well-known, or has a reputation.  But it's completely possible that it might be good too.

There are certain expectations coming from something labeled as a Classic, but just being labeled Classic needs to account for something.  It's possible that it may turnout to be my favorite book in the world, but because of the Classic stigma, I stay away from it.  That's like saying I don't like bologna sandwiches, but I've never bothered to taste one.

And I think being an author now a days, is honestly, so much easier to do.  With digital media, eBooks, and independent writing, you can reach people all over the world, faster than ever imagined, with considerably little effort.

I could hypothesize that a CLASSIC did the same thing in it's time - reaching it's fingers across the nations until it becomes part of culture.  And it wasn't a Classic then, it was just a book.  Dickens, Austen, Kipling... They all did it - the HARD WAY, no Word spellcheck, or grammar correction, nor computer typing, audio to text, eBook upload, or even erasers, if we want to get primitive.  So, doesn't that deserve, at the very least - a LOOK?

Classics are, in most cases, public domain, which anyone could download and it's there in 3.5 seconds.  I'm not sure how Sir Arthur Conan Doyle would feel about that, but I do know that his modern day Sherlock, would take advantage of every digital communication imaginable.

I have been very ignorant about my prejudice against Classics, (excluding Hemingway) and I have grown a higher respect for the genius of Sherlock Holmes, and for its author, who had to be more genius to come up with it all.

Take the challenge and put a Classic on your TO READ list.  Find out what makes it - a Classic!

Dragonswood Review

Dragonswood by Janet Lee Carey

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I loved this book.  It gets a full star for the cover.  I was stunned. 

I was very impressed with the language and overall structure of the book.  Though set in the twelfth century, the sentences were very well constructed and it was easy to read and relate.  Sometimes period based reads are harsh reading, but for the age group, it was honey.

It was a proper book. It's what I hope to achieve some day.  There were some very obvious plotlines that I don't think needed to disguise, but yet, I never could predict where it was going, which I liked.

It was clean.  There was brutal reading about all the beatings, but for character development, I feel it was necessary to understand the fear and realizations of the main character, Tess.  There was no language to worry about or situations you wouldn't wnat your mother reading - just adventure, and magic, and dragons, and witches, and fairies... and everythign else!  SWEET!

Janet Lee Carey really put a lot of time into this read.  There were many references to items or habits, which are period, and I had no clue of what it really was, but it didn't matter.  As the main character, Tess, described her world, you understood it without looking on Dictionary.com, because it was real to her and through action, needed nothing further.  That is what I appreciated the most.

The love story was sweet and gratifying, without being explicit.  I loved the banter between Tess and Garth.  It was fun and genuine, with well written dialogue.  I love dialogue!  It communicated of souls reaching connection, for a stronger bound.  How awesome!

Kudos Janet!  I loved it!!

View all my reviews

The Future in here!

(a chat I had with my 8 yr old)

Mia: Mom!!  Mom!!  We are in the FUTURE!

Me: What?

Mia: Really Mom!!  We are in the future.  Like living IN the FUTURE.

Mom: Okay... and why's that?

Mia: Mom, just look at this Pepsi Machine.  The arm moved up and got your drink for you, and places in the tube that spins around.  That is the future.

Me: Wow... I'm impressed.  My drink isn't fizzy.  I guess you're right.

Mia: It's going to be a great future.  I'm excited to see what they can do with candy machines.

Tweaking

I'm tweaking... be patient.  A lot of really good things are going on, but that makes my blogging suck.  As I change things around and make things sparkling and new, I will re-devote myself to me ramblings, just as I use to.

To be continued....

Writing For Charity - Revisited

A few years ago I got the chance to go to a Writing For Charity Event at the Treehouse Museum. I blogged about it long time ago.
This year I get to go. It's at the Provo Historical Library and has stellar Authors. My hope some day would be one of them. I'll post all the fun and pics... 
Writing For Charity
But here was the fun I had before: (Originally Posted 9-7-09) 
Writers With Writers

Stupidity Ball

I had the lucky fortune of winning a Stability Ball at my work. I have never owned one. I figured - what would I do with this? And I don't feel I have the room for the huge rubber ball in my house.

But luck smiles on the fortunate.

I picked it up last night. They were kind enough to fill it for me and I was lucky enough to drive a SVU that could fit it in the back.

When I picked up my Jules from Pre-school she was so excited to see this giant ball in the back.

Jules: Is that for me?

Me: Nope it's mine.

She was rather confused. Why would Mommy want a giant ball? But I promised I would let her play with it, and she was fine.

Later I came home and mentioned to my husband Kev that I won something from work and that he would love it. He never asked what it was and started talking about his trip he just returned from. So I completely forgot to finish the conversation.

All four of us went to my 8 yr old Mia's Parent/Teacher Conference and afterward we thought we might grab some dinner. I was driving and it wasn't until I went to back up out of a parking place that Kev finally saw this ball. I mean, you couldn't miss it, sticking out, blocking my rear-view vision.

Kev: Holy freaking Ball!

Me: Oh yes, (I remembered I hadn't finished this conversation) I told you I won something.

Kev: What do you do with a ball that big?

Me: It is for exercising. It's my stability ball.

My eight year old Mia snickered: You mean STUPIDITY BALL!!

Yes. She had said it. What we were all thinking. I couldn't stop laughing.

Score one for Mia!

Divergent Review

Divergent by Veronica Roth

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I just finished this.... and this book surprised me. I LOVED it!! And that is weird to say, since their is violence and tattoos and punching people - even girls... crazy... But I thought it was ingeniously created and presented.
I mean, who thinks of this stuff. My hats off to Veronica for having a depth of mind to create such a unique idea of the future.
I'm not much for first person reads, but I liked being in Tris's head. I loved how it played out in everyday language as a sixteen year old thinks, feels, and views her world. Not much explanation went into things, which I liked, making it easy to read, and easy to understand. The world is very visible and complicated, but it makes clear sense to Tris and everyone around her - this is what she knows and grew up knowing and knows nothing besides this.
I didn't have the anxiety I got from Hunger Games, which was nice, and I also loved the mystery of it. I mean, really... how did she think all this up? I'm impressed.
I could feel it - the wind, the pain, the emotion... All of it!
I tried to explain the beginning to my family and it just jumbled around in my mouth as I spit the words out.
I'm not lovey and there wasn't much kissy-face, but enough to make my girlie side smile. And she made up for it with the guns!
I am intrigued to find out what happens next.
View all my reviews

Hunger Games Tease...

Hello.... HUNGER GAMES!!!

It's time! I got my tickets for the Google-Plex for Midnight and I'm stinking excited. So excited you should see my idea for the T-shirts. I'm taking orders now, if anyone is interested! Love the concert tee idea from my SIL and the Emblems are close to what they should on the Wiki page, so there you go. $20! Even if you ordered one from Hot Topic it wouldn't be this cool.

May the Odds Be Ever In Your Favor!!

"Breakthrough" Novel

I am so close to releasing Vampire-ish, it's going to be great!!
I know because of the vampire nature of the book and the over saturation of the Twilight movies, I will be releasing it as a POD and eBook coming in June, I hope.
The reason why so late -- I have entered it in to the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest. I entered this contest last year with my first Everstar novel and it made it to Semi's, which I thought was fantastic. Vampire-ish is such a quirk, fun, refreshing read - as long as it is in the contest I cannot release it. If it does well, you should be seeing it in your local B&N coming soon.
I'll keep you posted.
If anyone is interested in this contest, here is some information. It is a great opportunity to get out and share your stuff. The contest is free and presented by Createspace - independent publishing. Great alternative if you want full copyright and distribution on your books.
Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award

Awesome Fuzzy Sock Muffs

I got some awesome fuzzy socks for Christmas. They are so fuzzy it's like stepping in a bunny all around the house.
They had gone missing, but I found them this morning cleaning out my daughter's room, so I slipped them on my bare feet and felt the magic of the fluffiness.
So when I got on my bed tonight to do some rewriting I took them off to give my feet a break and breathe. I placed them next to me and had intentions of returning them to my feet in a moment.
This same daughter, after I had sent her to bed, came a visited me a number of times. I knew she was stalling, but secretly I think she had been eying my socks all day. The third time she visited I noticed she had snuck my socks and held them very covered in her hands.
Me: Mia? What are you doing?
Mia: Nothing. I just wanted a hug.
Me: Are you stealing my socks?
Mia: (Looking so coy, knowing she had been caught) I need them.
Me: Why?
Mia: I get cold.
It was a fair excuse, since she sleeps in the basement. So I sent her away with them if she promised to go to sleep and not get out of bed anymore. She didn't return.
I just went to check on her and found her asleep with my awesome fuzzy socks not on her feet, but dangling from her ears.