Guns are no longer in my immediate future...

I'm so bummed. I got a message over the weekend that the Citizen's Police Academy will be postponed until Fall of 2008. I was looking forward to frisking people and shooting guns. Just in case the letter I got in the mail was wrong, I confirmed with the Lieutenant. No classes. Sigh.

At first I wondered if this was a polite way to say "we don't want to teach you cop stuff cause you scare us girl!" However, since I KNOW I don't have any convictions I couldn't imagine there would be any reason they would be unwilling to teach me stuff. Heaven knows there's no way I'm going to take down any of their officers in a fight either. It's all about money. I hate budget crunches and staffing shortages.

Of course we get budget and staffing issues at the library too. Fiscal year rolled over in July and I've been spending money like a drunken sailor. Well, if drunken sailors actually bought things like the Standard Catalog of World Coins, the College Blue Book, or the Guinness World Records. Frankly, I can't picture them buying any of those books. But you get the idea. I'll soon be forking over the big bucks for the latest edition of the WorldBook Encyclopedia too. Reference books are so entertaining...not. Enlightening yes, entertaining, not so much.

Oh well, at least I still have airplanes to look forward to. I'll keep you posted on flying.

I'm on Fire!!!

Last weekend, right after my IRN meeting on the 18th I got involved with a writing challenge issued by fellow PI (Passionate Ink) members. I have been writing my ass off. Well, no. It's actually still there. However so are about 18,000 new words! Really! It's so exciting to feel creativity surging through me like this. In fact, if my writing surges regularly I'll be a very happy camper.

Part of my inspiration comes from the fact that I got to write an extremely hot love scene between my hero and heroine this week. Somehow I can NOT write a short love scene to save my life. Still I'm good with it because, DANG Eaduin is a hottie! The cool thing is Vérité more than matches him.

I could almost hear Eaduin singing the Rick James song, Superfreak. You know the line... "She's a very kinky girl. The kind you don't take home to mother..." And trust me kids, it was a VERY happy song Eaduin's singing. LOL Of course I know full well that Vérité has no complaints either. Ever since I wrote that scene she's been wearing one of those secret, "I've had great sex" smiles. You know, kind of like the Mona Lisa.

It's been a good week for writing!

I think my next door neighbor's name is Noah...

Iowa has been rained on.... And rained on. I thought this past spring was bad. Summer has been much worse overall. We've had a couple weeks of rain. In fact it's been raining off and on since the week I took vacation. Counties in northwest Iowa (yeah - I DID just drive up there) have been declared disaster areas. There is flooding in my former home town too.

I went to lunch with friends today and we had to run through the rain. Arrgh. Lunch was wonderful, but the rain was not. Later in the day I met another friend. It was great to sit down to chat so we could touch base. There are times I don't get the chance to tell people how much I appreciate them. Today afforded me the opportunity.

I work this weekend and when I'm scheduled at the library, I have Friday off. In spite of the rain it was a good day.

OtherWorld Diner daily special - tomorrow!

Art work by Michael Whelan

I'll be blogging again tomorrow and the topic for the week is what inspired us to write paranormal romance. My inspiration is Anne McCaffrey and Pern fiction. Anne has been writing about the Dragonriders of Pern® for forty years now. I only hope my work has that kind of longevity.

I loved her characters with all their warts and I loved her dragons. Visit my post tomorrow to find out more about how the Dragonlady has inspired my writing!

I See Dead People...

I'd hoped to get together with my sister this week when we both headed to northwest Iowa to visit our parents' graves. Unfortunately, her schedule didn't accommodate our plans. I hope we can get together later, but whether I met the living, I still wanted to visit the abode of the dead. Yeah, the cemetery.

As I mentioned, I've not been to the graves since my mom died because I know they aren't there. Their spirits are elsewhere even if their ashes are buried there, but for some reason I've felt called this year. I tried to visit a couple of years ago and was prevented by feet and I do mean FEET of snow covering the graveyard gates.

As my need to visit has grown, I keep wondering what it is that makes people commemorate the resting place of the dead. Why we feel it necessary to make pilgrimages. I haven't come up with anything overarching and profound for the world at large.

Of course I come from one of those bizarre families that take pictures of the deceased to add to the photo album and send snapshots of themselves next to their own gravestones to family members. No, really. I swear. One of my aunts did this. there is a picture of my aunt and her daughter beside my aunt's gravestone. This kind of planning ahead is a touch extreme in my personal opinion. So maybe this appeal of the graveyard makes sense for me. Even so, I've never understood the morbid fascination my family has with taking pictures of a dead person. I almost expect some voiceover guy to talk about "documenting the dead," like we just have to verify they are really gone or something. I love 'em but they're weird.

Of course I know that part of my need to visit the cemetery is the "they" thing. I want "them" to know my parents were loved by putting ornamentation on the graves. Now, I have no idea who "they" are, nor do "they" really care about whether my parents' graves have flowers on them. Still "they" linger in my mind.

At least I know where I got the dreaded "they" thing from. My mom. The house had to be clean in case "they" stopped by. What would "they" say if the children ran around the neighborhood in filthy clothes. Heck, what did I know or care about it at 8 years old.

I'm glad I went though. I left some baggage behind on the trip because I released some of my anger at my grandparents and acknowledged my gratitude to my great aunt and uncle. The trip helped me revisit my roots too. There were a LOT of stones in that graveyard that had my last name on them. I may not have known a good many of my relatives, but it was an odd sort of touchstone, milestone, and just stone-stone. I guess I had fun. Hey, I never said I was normal.

I joined a Group Blog - check it out!

One of the RWA chapters to which I belong is called FF&P: Futuristic, Fantasy & Paranormal. I met a group of likeminded ladies there who enjoy writing paranormal with a dash, or a LOT, or humor. We tossed the idea around today and decided to put together a group blog.

It sounded like a fun idea to do a group blog because then I'll only need to post every couple of weeks. I'm hooked up with a great bunch of writers! Please check out my blog over at The OtherWorld Diner tomorrow then let me know what you think. Look for future blog posts every two weeks, but feel free to visit the blog daily to read what my fellow writers have to say!

Vacation!

Three more days! I'm taking some much needed vacation time from August 6 - August 10. I can even hear the Go-Gos singing in my mind. Yes, I DO need a vacation. ;-) During that time I plan to do nothing. No travel. No split lips. No lost cell phones. Just nothing...

Well, not quite nothing. I AM going to write. I want to make some headway on my manuscript next week. I'm ready to get it finished so I can start submissions with it. I'm really enjoying my characters and the story they are building. Gotta tell you...Eaduin's REALLY hot.

And I am going to go to my parents' graves. Visiting graves. Yeah, now that sounds fun. It isn't so much fun as I need to go. My dad died in 1991 and my mom in 2003 and I haven't been to their graves since we buried Mom. They aren't there. I know that but I'm ready to release a little baggage so I'm going for a drive. I'll let you know whether or not I have "fun."