Wednesday, December 21, 2005

I've been tagged

Blogging is one thing that is tough to remember to do when under a deadline and dealing with the holidays, both at the same time. I keep thinking I'm a week from the end of this book (the 3rd Rose book), and every week, I'm still a week from the end. You will see great jubilation going up here when I finally do reach that end.

And then there's the holidays. When I finish the writing time, I have Christmas stuff to do--boxed up eight packages (EIGHT!) to go in the mail last Friday--had to take the large-son-with-muscles with me just to have someone to carry them in the building. Plus the cards and getting everything wrapped. I haven't cooked anything Christmas-y at all yet--I'm afraid I'll eat it all myself and I do NOT need to do that. So I'll wait till the grandboys get here (with their daddy this time), earlier than we thought they'd be able to come--and I'll let them help. (Oh boy!)

Anyway, my friend Robin Owens, an award-winning fellow Luna author, tagged me with a thing, and it nudged me into getting myself over here to blog a blog (before those little boys come). So, here it is.

7 items for 7 questions:

7 things to do before I die:

Sing The Messiah in some community group thing
Visit Scotland
Write all the books in my head, plus whatever new ones I come up with
Write a book somebody wants to make into a movie
Visit Australia & New Zealand
Read all the books in my TBR list
Finish one of the $5 quilt project quilts

7 things I cannot do:

Sing soprano
Serve a tennis ball (or anything else requiring eye-hand coordination)
Waterski
Walk out of a bookstore with fewer than 2 books (and more often I've got 4 or 5)
Wear a size 6
Eat liver
Hammer nails without hammering fingers

7 things that attract me to Men:

Sense of humor and play
Gentleness
Dependability
Great hands
The ability to listen
Interesting things to say
Knowing when to be silent

7 things I say most often:

Honey
Um
You know...
Hey, good lookin'.
Okay
Bad word.
It's against the rules to tickle your wife in church. (Still haven't cured him of that. sigh)

7 Books or Series I love:

My own Rose books. (Hey, if I didn't love them, I wouldn't write them.)
Both of Laurell K. Hamilton's series
Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles series, and her Quintarian series
Laura Kinsale's books (especially Flowers from the Storm and Shadow Heart)
The Sholan series by Lisanne Norman
Suzanne Brockmann's books
Kim Harrison's Witch books

7 movies I can watch over and over:

Wimbledon
X-Men (1 and 2)
13th Warrior
Firefly
Ladyhawke
Dear Frankie
Speed

7 people I want to join in (tag, you're it):

April Galyardt
Nalini Singh
Bronwyn Jameson
Belinda Barnes
Diana Loftin
Alisa Dollar
Emilie Rose

Okay, there it is. I know some of you I've tagged don't have blogs. I don't care. Send me an e-mail. Post it here, in the comments. Something.

Monday, December 05, 2005

To Blog, or Not to Blog

Actually, that isn't the question, because the answer is, invariably--Blog!

I mean, why set up a blog if I don't blog on it occasionally? No! I must Blog!

The problem is, I have trouble thinking of things to say. My life is excruciatingly boring. All I do is write, read books, drive to "the big city" once a week to paint and run errands and maybe, if I'm lucky, see a movie, and occasionally bake a pie. Admittedly, this has led to blogs about pies, but really...how boring is that?

I have friends who blog about imaginary people. Their blog is a story about someone or something they'd like to write about. I could do that. Except that most of the time, my brain is already too busy with trying to write the stories I actually get paid to write, and I'm not one of those people who is very good at shifting gears in the old brain. I even stink at the role-playing game things people like to do on the Luna boards. I just can't be that clever on demand. Or something. I admire those who can, and wonder why I can't.

So what you get here are the "Welp, I finished up two more quilt blocks last night, and this morning, I relocated a love scene and taught my characters how to dream-walk and tomorrow, we're going to have a big bad lover's quarrel and then..." type of blogs, interspersed with the occasional paean to pies and inspired bit of writer's talk. Usually inspired by somebody else.

Hope I don't bore you too much. :)