Two at once - read the bottom one first!

I'm sure you were all waiting with baited breath to see if I could pay my mortgage yesterday when we had a debit card defraud of $1500 smackers. The bank reversed the charges, they took out the mortgage payment, and I'm back at $0.00. So what's new?
Wow, you are all very chatty today! Pages and ages of posts to read.
Today pamm wrote about reading all her friends posts every day, but not having time to post comments or thinking she doesn't have anything new to add to the discussion. I feel the same way, especially on a day when everyone is posting all kinds of cool stuff, but I don't have that hour or two to post comments. Please know that I read, enjoy, laugh, cry and feel like I've still connected with you. It's like having a conversation between friends via diaries. I mean, isn't that the whole point of Live Journal? Which I think is totally, absolutely COOL.
A few responses within my own . . .
susanwritesYour post about the guy planning out his proposal and his girlfriend getting wind of it and then thinking he was breaking up with her was hilarious and sweet. I loved your interview, too, but alas, did not post. :-(
barboconnor
I've loved the pictures this summer of your garden and all your writing spots. How sad that it's all torn up! But it looks like it'll be even BETTER next year!
bluemalibu
I can't believe you wrote until 3:30 in the morning, got up at 5:30 and went to work all day. AND that you plan on writing tonight! You have way too much energy, girl! Pass some my direction!
carriejones
You are just too funny!!!!!!!
crissachappell
Good luck on your first book signing!
selimsa803
I am appalled right along with you! That yellow color makes me feel like I'm putting something radioactive into my mouth.
lisaalbert
Enjoy your book buying frenzy!
jmprince
Love that word! I need to force myself to take a blacation so I can get my rewrites and critiques finished . . .'
kidlit_kim
What a bummer about your dream bedroom set. I say just knock that old darn staircase to the ground! It's only a bunch of wood. Your hubby can whip up another staircase this weekend, can't he?!
lisa_schroeder
I feel your son's algebra pain. What a horrible, no good, very bad day!

TEN THINGS ON A MONDAY - READ FIRST! :-)

I'm four days behind in my blog reading - and I'm usually totally addicted so this is HIGHLY unusual!

Is anybody else out there going crazy over just plain life *stuff*. Here's what's been on my docket in just the last few days:

1. Cars breaking down again. Continually. In the last 4 months we've spent $6,000 in car repairs for 4 different vehicles. Enough already! Took 15 hours on Friday just to get the flippin' car to the flippin' mechanic. Tow dolly's are not that easy to come by. Or to hook up. And the one person in town that had one didn't want to stay open long enough for my husband to go pick it up. It was only 3 o'clock in the afternoon. And then hung up on him! Weird.

2. My son, my baby, is moving out of state so I'm very weepy.

3. A girl from Israel (Jerusalem to be precise) is here on a 2 year internship with the local prison as a counselor and I've been helping her out with housing, sightseeing, dinner, finding a bicycle, taking her places, etc. Marif is doing her doctorate internship for psychology. She's very sweet, but is paranoid about how much sunshine New Mexico has and is slathering on the sunblock so heavy her face is sort of white. A little amusing I have to admit.

4. Drama, drama, drama, with my seminary class lately. Six weeks worth and I hope things are going to calm down now so I can focus on teaching and not talking to parents and unhappy students. (Not in my class, one of the other classes. I had all these students last year and they've been begging to come back to my class. Not a happy situation.) Resolution is in sight now.

5. Drama with my Asperger son - although that rarely ever goes away completely. Need to get him back into the doctor and do a meds evaluation or more counseling.

6. Critiquing 45 manuscripts for the Abilene Writers conference. Due this weekend and I haven't even started!!!

7. Reprinting my novel, , which won the Southwest Book Award, because I get so many requests to purchase during school visits which I have several coming up in November and December. Lots of work to get a book ready to reprint, but the artist gave me permission last week to use his original cover art - yay!

8. Another MAJOR revision for Secret Rites of the Goddess coming along slowly, but surely. The first person POV is working well and I've finally nailed down the premise and character arc. Only took me 2 years. Hey, I'm a slow learner!

9. Another revision for The Healing Spell is almost done. I came up with some really fun additions to the story and the *spell* itself for which I made a recipe and I'm quite excited about it. Editor at FSG is very interested! And I'm querying dream agent with the novel tomorrow!!!!

10. Last, but not least. Somebody in Greece used my husband's debit card number to charge $1500 worth of stuff on Friday!
HOW does this happen? This person does not have my husband's card in hand or his pin number or ID to match the name on the card. Who would let somebody do that? Unless it's someone in banking or who worked for this particular store outside of Athens.

11. Okay, so it's 11 things on a Monday. You get a Bonus # or a Bonus Question - Anybody got ideas for how I can pay my mortgage tomorrow? The bozo in Athens spent my mortgage $$$ on SHOES!!!

Childhood Favorites with My Twin

I get to be a twin today! Barbara O’ Connor, one of my favorite children’s writers – and one of my *best* writing friends EVER is my look-alike. We're doing twin blogs about our favorite childhood books. Be sure to read hers, too! barboconnor and Greetings From Nowhere.

1. The books I read the most in just sheer numbers were NANCY DREW mysteries. I also read just about every Phyllis Whitney mystery too. I received my very first Nancy Drew, THE HIDDEN WINDOW MYSTERY, when I was eleven from a 3^rd grade teacher. At lunchtime I'd go into her classroom and grade papers or cut out bulletin board art. I loved helping Miss Aungst and she was so nice and so pretty. She gave me THE HIDDEN WINDOW as a thank you gift at the end of the school year. In 6^th grade at an orthodontist appointment I was, of course, reading a Nancy Drew mystery, probably THE CLUE IN THE ATTIC while reclining in the chair waiting for the doctor when the assistant told me that she had some Nancy Drew’s at home that used to belong to her mother. At my next appt. she brought me AN ENTIRE BOX of First Edition Nancy Drew’s, published in the 1940s. I wonder what they’re worth? I still have them. They have blue covers and no cover art, published before the yellow ones in the 60s and 70s.

2. THE LITTLE WHITE HORSE by Elizabeth Goudge. My mother found this book in a magazine that had a “Books to Check Out” list. I was always looking for the next book to read since I read one every single day. I loved, loved, loved this book. It’s got everything - the *olden days* as I used to call the 1800s as a kid, mystery, danger, magic, and a bit of romance and fairy tale.


3. HARRIET THE SPY by Louise Fitzhugh. I became Harriet. I kept a notebook. I spied on people. I wrote my own stories. But I never got in trouble or dissed my friends.

4. MAGIC ELIZABETH by Norma Kassirer. I couldn’t even tell you how many times I read this book I loved it so much. And I still have my original copy.



5. SUZIE AND THE BALLET FAMILY by Lee Wyndham. I love ballet and devoured this wonderful series over and over again. My mother let me buy the whole set through the Scholastic book club. 35 - 50 cents for a book back then! Mind-boggling.

6. TO DANCE, TO DREAM by Maxine Drury. 10 stories about the real lives of famous dancers through the last three centuries: Maria Taglioni, Isadora Duncan, Anna Pavlova, Margot Fonteyn and ending with Maria Tallchief. My favorite was Anna Pavlova – I was mesmerized reading about Anna’s ballet slippers and how she tore them apart and re-sewed them before each performance.

My copy of this wonderful volume is inscribed: “To Kimberley on your ninth birthday. With love and best wishes from Uncle Dave, Aunt Mabel, Debra, Greg, Scott and Lisa.”

7. HELEN KELLER’S TEACHER by Margaret Davidson.

8. LADY WITH A LAMP, Florence Nightingale. Awesome woman.

9. NELLIE BLY, REPORTER. Very cool chick. I was shocked at Nellie’s nerve to get herself admitted to an insane asylum so that she could uncover the truth about what was happening inside. Talk about guts! I also read a book about a woman who became a Confederate spy but I can’t remember the title. The thing that stuck with me was when she actually chewed and swallowed an incriminating note one time to keep from getting caught. Wow.

10. A LANTERN IN HER HAND by Bess Street Aldrich. HISTORICAL FICTION AT IT’S BEST! That’s all I have to say. This is definitely one of the first *cross-over* books that both YA’s and adults have loved - long before that term was coined a few years ago.



Now don't forget to read Barb's Favorites - after all - we're twins today!

Dreams

I rarely have very vivid dreams and if I ever remember a dream the next morning, it is usually just too weird to even relate to someone else. It never makes sense or it’s suddenly very stupid.

And yet I will share last night's dream and let my underwear hang out. Metaphorically speaking.

Last night I dreamed that I was at SCWBI LA and nobody would room with me. And when everybody went swimming in the spectacular Hearst Castle type pool, I didn’t have a bathing suit.

And I kept trying to catch up with all my friends, but I kept missing everyone by five minutes here or five minutes there or I was in the wrong location.

So instead I went over to check out the lava flowing from the volcano (what?!?!), only to run away screaming - along with all the people hanging out over there when it began to erupt in earnest.

So what the heck does this dream mean?

I’m a little afraid to even find out.

Go to my Live Journal to read the comment's on this post - lots of fun!