Friday, August 27, 2010

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

I had chocolate cake for breakfast because I've been good.

Then I went and had to work. But it was okay. My husband, who drives a bus too, managed to go grab a card from the student center bookstore, and secretly left it on my seat so that when I came back from a break, there is was. (All together now:

Awwwwwww)

Now that I'm off that bus, ready to relax some, champagne is chillin' and so are the glasses. Nope. Not any special number, it's just because I felt like it.

I am at an age (106 in vampire years) where I've gone through a lot of things. And writing has been part of my adult life. I used to dream of having a best seller, and be able to write for a living, but at this late stage of the game, and knowing what to expect from the traditional venue, I know it's not gonna happen. Not unless someone sees what I wrote and just has some crazy idea to make it into a movie.

When you get to this age, you realize that everything you've tried--for decades--just ain't working. I'm a realist. I don't have time to wait for an editor or an agent to "get back to me". I waited 5 weeks on the last one. Then my Internet was shut down--because of that phone company, which I got rid of--and due to that, my e-mail changed and I'll never know if she ever did get back to me, but I don't care right now. I can take a hint. Plus, I figured if she couldn't get back to me, I wasn't going to go groveling to her. I'd already had a POD publisher tell me they would like to publish my book.

It's apparent to me that I'll be driving a bus until I can retire. But I'd like to have my books out there. I'd like to earn a little cash, and I know that the vampire novels will be popular, since everything vampires is still hot--in books, on TV, and the movies. I'm not going to wait around for another year sweating, wondering if the same will be true then. I might have sold 85 books with my first one, "Spell of the Black Unicorn". If I did that well with that first one, how much better might I do with the vampire one. A lot of people's eyes bugged when I mentioned I was working on a vampire novel.

So, this is where I'm at. I know I've improved my writing since that first one, and I'm working on a few edits before I hand "Vampire Ascending" over to Copper Hill Media, and get a signed contract from them. After I make sure that they didn't change anything that goes against me from what they have at the on-line contract, then I'll sign up with them for sure.

Now, hmmmm, I think it's time for my scheduled bubble bath.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Taos Is Amazing!





Taos, New Mexico was our destination after leaving Colorado. The drive from Durango down to the border was one that I will not soon forget. Just smooth mountain driving, hardly meeting another car. Just perfect. Little did we realize we would cross the Rio Grande, but we had stopped at a rest area, and slowly realized there was a bridge. Then walked over to a fence and saw that there was a huge gorge. People were walking across the bridge taking pictures and just marveling at how deep it is. (Someone who saw my pictures actually asked if this was the Grand Canyon--I sort of laughed to myself. You can never mistake this little bitty thing with the Grand Canyon.)

We got to our motel, checked in and we were starving. We were directed to Taos Plaza, where we could park, but found it was tight, and it was meter parking. We found a free lot, and walked back. But Taos is unbelievable. All adobe buildings, even the McDonalds(and no arches), all up and down main street and beyond. This was so far removed from any place I'd ever been before.

The plaza was a square of various stores, a lot of nice jewelery, and gift shops, eating places. This picture was taken on a balcony at a restaurant where we enjoyed the best tacos plus a tomato and cucumber salad that tasted like a lime pie. While we waited for our meal the clouds were gathering and the wind came up. The clouds became really dark. I joked that I would do my non-rain dance. You know what? It worked.

Meanwhile an old gentleman, who used a walking stick came by, looked down at the street below, saying that the guy who pulled up in the Rolls Royce was someone famous, but he couldn't remember who he was. The Rolls was gold, and the steering wheel was on the right hand side. He went into the very posh jewelery/pottery place that I didn't even feel I had a right to step into.

Anyway the old man said he'd been coming there for 50 years, and he'd seen or met various famous people. Many movie stars, musicians, artists and so forth hang here, and it wasn't unusual to see someone strumming a guitar somewhere singing away, in and out of the plaza. He claimed to have met the artist Georgia O'Keef. I wanted to believe him. Why not? Artists set up shop in their own homes around the town, and plaza here, and if they're open you can go into their gallery which is usually part of their house. The houses are just beautiful. Usually there are the adobe walls which surround the yards, and always a wooden gate that may be as fancy as Tudors made of some carved wood. Just didn't have time to take many pictures. I wanted to stay another night, but our time-limits and money were tight.

Hope to return someday, and even go to Santa Fe, where we can see Georgia O'Keef museum and her home is there, I think too.

The next day we traveled down through some tight twisting turns down out of Taos and came across some place called Angel Fire. We could see this cloud hovering above the ground, and it's sort of weird because it's fog that has settled in this valley, and just hangs there thick and white, and as you drive down into it, the fog is about 25 feet above you for a while. The cool lake and hot sun must create this and causes this "angel fire", it looks spooky, like smoke. Strangest thing I've ever seen, unfortunately didn't get a picture of that either. Maybe next time.

Monday, August 23, 2010

True Blood Stars Get Hitched!



Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer of True Bood get married! For full details go to:

http://www.usmagazine.com/healthylifestyle/news/anna-paquin-and-stephen-moyer-get-married-2010218

Sunday, August 22, 2010

More Pictures from Silverton, Colorado




Here I am, the rock hound. My husband caught me by surprise while I searched the rock bin for just the right rock. I had a number of choices, as you can see.

And my husband is standing in front of the locomotive. Just in case any of you fantasy writers happen to use a locomotive in your writing, and you've never been around one, make note that the soot is very dense. They advise people who ride it in the open cars to wear protective eye-wear (sunglasses, etc), because you can get the soot in your eyes. Just standing near it, Dennis caught some in his. It was a goo experience for me as a writer to stand so close to a working engine, smell, feel it, the coal that they burn is really harsh. Just a note for any future work I or any of you might need for a future project.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Travel Bug (My Vacation)





I don't think I could ever get on a plane just to get somewhere in two or three hours, and deal with the mayhem that goes on at airports.


No.

I enjoy getting up at 3 a.m. getting the suitcases and all last minute things ready and throwing it into the back and then getting out on the road at the break of dawn, watching the scenery go by, see the sky, do a little bird and animal watching.

Thinking about it as I sat in passenger seat of our F150, I think watching the scenery go by, watching how it changes is the best part. That and escaping from Illinois for a week or more. Once Iowa's hilly green crops roll by I know I'm out of a boring northern Illinois, I'm away from the rushing throng of city people who usually invade our area.

Our destination was Silverton Colorado, and hopefully Taos N.M.

But actually the second day is more exciting. We're in Nebraska by then. We stayed in York, NE the first night. Not the most exciting place to be if one were to choose a place to stay for one night, and it was hot. The heat index was 110! And just walking across the parking lot to an Arby's was overwhelming.

But, like I said, the journey is all part of the vacation. Watching thunderheads develope in the wide-open sky. The next morning there were three thunderheads developing. One looks like a paint brush stroke by an artist, and the second one looks exactly like an anvil. The third one was just developing. I make an accurate guess we might be clipped by one in the form of a shower, and as we race west, toward Kearny for breakfast, I'm right on.

As we pass North Platte, later in the day, we cross the time zone. Now in western time zone we gladly move our clocks back one hour--we've magically gained one hour and will be able to get into Limon, Colorado early afternoon.


When I think about how people got around over 150 years ago, you have to suddenly appreciate how we can get 450 miles in one day over land.

Especially when you think about how people once got around. Either by horse, stage, or locomotive.

Entering Silverton you magically are immersed into the old west. This is a fantasy world, but then again it's not, because this time and the things you see once existed. These preserved old western towns open your eyes and senses to the past that you don't get to experience in many other places. You come to appreciate the way we live, and maybe learn to slow down a bit to take things in.

In Silverton, where citizens have created a town where one can step back in time you can take the train to Durango (3hours), for a hefty price, or you can take a short stage ride around town. Since we didn't have the moola for the train ride, we took the stage coach. The two horses were named Sonny and Cher. Our experience was also enhanced by the fact a mountain shower was coming in. August is the monsoon season, and so showers can happen at any time--usually in the afternoon. This one put a damper on things, and we had to cut our visit short.

The second half of the tip got us into northern New Mexico and some amazingly beautiful drives there. I'll share more photos of Taos, the Rio Grand, and more on the tip in my next blog.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Lorelei In Motion

After a horrible phone company bumped me off my Internet server, I bumped them. That's the short version. I now am with my original phone company, and my Internet server is back. Thus I'm back, now after an 8-day vacation out west.

My husband and I drove out of boring Illinois and through the hilly, green of Iowa, and rested for the night in York Nebraska. We get up early in the morning to get going. Our destination was southern Colorado and hopefully the northern tip of New Mexico. We wanted to see Taos.

I hope to get the pictures of the places we went by the weekend so as to share them. I felt the trip was needed by both of us because of all the personal things going on in our lives, and the need to just escape for a time. See some interesting things, do something different.

Well, Taos is as different as you can get and unfortunately we could only be there for the day.

Our other destination was Silverton Colorado. A step back in time. In very few western towns can you get a ride on a stage and get on a locomotive for a ride. The train ride was out of our range, but the stage coach was an interesting time, even as a mountain shower--which really turned into a storm--clipped our ride a little short.

We also walked around the edge of a volcano--not live--in New Mexico, and had the most relaxing beautiful mountain ride it took to get from one scenic spot to the next.

I'd like to share a little more on this. My head is still spinning, and I'm trying to get caught up. But I'm so happy to be back on-line, it was a mess to clear up, believe me.

AUDIO BOOK NOW AVAILABLE!

Hi, everyone, I have some great news! My first Sabrina Strong book, Ascension, is now in an audio book format.  NOW THAT I HAVE YOUR ATTE...