If a Movie Were Made of My Life ...

Goldie Hawn would play me because she's cute and can play a goofball without even trying.
Dennis would, of course, be played by Robert Redford because he looks great in a beard.

Hey, this is my fantasy, so shut the heck up. I know, I know. Goldie is blond/blue eyed and I'm a brunette. You got a problem with that? Well, do ya?

Oh, by the way, today's ramblings are brought to you by ... hmmm. Okay. Ramblings R Us.

Things that bug me
You ever watch these old western shows where the men are clean-cut, shaven, and the women have heavy eye make-up and their hair is perfect? That kills me. "The Big Valley" was not my cup of tea, or any actor/actress on there. Seems that the women got to wear make-up and their hair anyway they liked (no one had a hair-do like Mrs. Barkly back in the 1880's), and clothes to look good on the screen. I once saw a show where Mrs. Barkly had a stretch/knit turtle neck on and I'm really sure those were not seen until modern times.

Other things that bug me
I've been re-reading the Charlaine Harris' Sookie books. There are things that bother me about her writing--she does a lot of telling in them. Her first two books were hard to read because she was all over the place with her writing style. It calms down slightly in later books... slightly, I said.

In "Definitely Dead", Eric (a top-dog vampire who has had sex with our heroine, Sookie, but doesn't remember because he was under a witches spell), has had his second in command call Sookie to come to him. She refuses. Sookie is a busy girl and she's got things to do, has a date with a weretiger and such. So, on the very night she is waiting for her date, Eric shows up at her doorstep.
"You told Pam you didn't want to come to Shreveport," he said. Oh, yes, he was angry.
Now, this is telling. I want to see his face. I want to watch his jaw work, I need to see this! Because I just don't believe he's angry.

What I do like about Sookie is that she isn't afraid of the vampires in her life--well, most of them (we get that they're scary, because she always tells us they are "the scariest vampire I've ever seen"). She mouths off to Eric and points out that he has not committed to her, has not asked her out or anything since then, even though he likes to point out they had sex and that he "assisted you financiall" (she corrects him and tells him he paid her for services rendered--um, not the sex, but she used her tellepathic powers to help in some situation.

Work In Progress
I'm working up to the climax in the seventh book. Well, I've written the scene out, but I've got it in my "notes" so it isn't officially in the manuscript as yet.

As you can imagine, Sabrina has had many, many things happen to her in books #4-6. Wishing I could just tell you about them, but I won't be that mean, and go on for hundreds of pages here. But at this point Sabrina is facing off with Stefan, who is now magnate of the Eastern half of the US. His goal is to impregnate Sabrina. Sabrina isn't exactly keen on all this "impregnate the sibyl" scenario. She's sick of it, in fact. And, as a background note, at the beginning of this book, she's lost her memory of everything, but she's gradually gaining things back.

I've been working on this scene and threw in a few things here and there. Forgive me if this is all raw, but then, it is a WIP.
Oh, and Bill Gannon is with her. At this point Bill and Sabrina are very "close". Ehem.

The house phone rang. I gave Bill a withering look.

“Who is it?” he asked, looking directly at me. Yes. I should know the answer to that. But I didn't.

“A supernatural. Which one, I don't know,” I said. Flopping my napkin on the table, I got up to answer it, having to duck into the kitchen to grab the handset. “Hello?”

“Sabrina, good evening.”

I rolled my eyes. “Hello, Stefan.”

“You sound... preoccupied,” he said.

“I was eating dinner,” I said.

“Very sorry,” he said. “The reason I'm calling is, I'm coming out to your house.”

Oh fudge. “I can't entertain you, tonight, Stefan.”

“Why? Is Bill still there?” his voice a straight monotone.

“As a matter of fact, yes, he is.” I smiled to myself. If that bothered him, too bad.

“I'm bringing your cell phone charger to you. I thought that you'd like to have that.”

“That's very nice of you,” I said, but knew that he would not drive all the way out to my neck of the woods just to bring me back my little charger for my phone. He wanted to see me.

“I will be there in a few minutes. Will you welcome me inside, at least?”

“Inside my house?” I said. “No. I don't think so.” I knew that once the vampire was invited in, he could barge in any time he pleased.

“Well, at least come out to get the phone charger,” he said. At that exact moment I heard a car pull into the drive. Looking out the window, I could see the headlights of his car.

“Okay,” I said reluctantly, because my gut told me this was a ruse. I hung up and stepped out into the dining room where Bill was waiting for me.

“Don't tell me,” he said. “Stefan is here and he wants to talk to you.”

“He has my phone charger.”

“He could have sent it by the post,” Bill said.

“I know. He wants to talk to me.” I took my coat off the peg and slipped my arms into it. “I need to make sure he won't bother me any more.”

“I'll give you two minutes before I come out there.”

“Wow. You don't trust me?”

“I don't trust him. You get into his car, he takes off and I have to chase you down.”

I twisted my lips. Hadn't thought of this. “Okay.” I went out into the cold night. His car was parked near the steps. I was glad to get into the relatively warmer confines.

“Here is your charger.” Stefan handed me a sealed envelope. Of course the bumps conveyed to me that the wire for my cell phone was inside. Not that I was worried about it. I was more worried about the real reason he had come all the way from the city to see me.

“Thank you,” I said.

“You got the flowers I sent?”

“Yes, and thank you for those as well.”

“There are a few things I must speak to you about, and I couldn't do this over the phone. I had to see you face-to-face.”

“Okay. What's up?” Licorice and leather filled my nose. I wanted to take a bite out of him, but resisted with all my might. He obviously upped the wattage on his usual vampire scent to drive me nuts.

“I've had my lawyer look over the papers of your marriage agreement with Vasyl. I hadn't even realized this was not a regular marriage certificate, but a vampire marriage to a human. The marriage is recognized in a court of law. Thus, we will get it annulled. No problem. However, the Bond Sponsor line was not signed at the bottom.” All of this was news to me, since I couldn't remember the wedding at all.

“I'm sorry, I'm not following you,” I said. “I don't recall it so I don't—”

“In other words, the vampire who would have been chosen to be Bond Sponsor would take over the bond you have with Vasyl, should anything happen to him. Since Vasyl relinquished his status as magnate over the eastern half of the United States to me—and left you—I can legally claim to be your Bond Sponsor. It doesn't matter when it it signed. I signed it today.”

I looked quizzically at him. The porch lights played over his handsome face. For some reason, I wasn't affected by them at all. Not like before.

“In other words you are mine, Sabrina,” he said.

“That's ridiculous!” I snapped. “This isn't the twelfth century. You can't make me go or stay with you.”

He grabbed my arm before I could make a run for it. I stared back at him. His vice-like grip on me hurt and I nearly cried out, but I wouldn't, damn him!

“Let go of me!” I all but growled through gritted teeth.

“Like it or not, my claim on you is legal in vampire law.”

“I'm not yours to have. I'm a human!”

The door opened on my side. Bill grabbed my arm and pulled me out. Stefan actually let me go. I was happy to be away from Stefan his crazy words, but this whole visit had up-set me.

“Vampire law won't hold—or even be presented—in a human court of law, and you well know it,” Bill said, obviously having heard the whole conversation. I hadn't even heard or seen him step outside. He wasn't wearing a coat at all. The wind whipped his dark hair around his head.

“That may be, Gannon, but mark my words, you have not heard the last of me!” Stefan said. Bill slammed the door shut, and Stefan put his car into drive and pulled away. Bill jumped out of the way. I stared after the black car's red tail lights as it made a swerving turn onto the icy road, and sped away. Bill strode up the porch steps where I stood.

“I've just made enemies of a vampire lord,” I said, dismally.

Bill put an arm around me. “Yes, but you've got a god and goddess on your side. I think your deck is pretty stacked, if you ask me.”

Hope you enjoyed this! Gotta get the heck out of here for the day!