Lorelei's Monday Musings

Well, I've survived another Bell family picnic. I see a lot of these people once a year, and they all seem to change. Some bloat up because they've stopped dieting, and some slim down a little because they are trying to get back on track. I also met my husband's nephew's wife who my newest fan who'd said she read my book in two days--could not put it down. So, that was nice for the both of us to officially meet and talk. And the corn was deeeelicious!


Today I'm home, because I will have Monday's off, and very happy to be rather than on the road with a bunch of crazy-ass drivers at NIU and beyond. Although I have an appointment with my hygienist who has to finish the job of scraping my teeth, I'd still rather be in the chair of a dentist's office, enduring excruciating pain than driving a Huskie bus for NIU students. Oh, the first day . . . yeah. I'm happy to not be there when thousands of students walk out in front of you, jump into their cars and think they're going to find a parking spot.

So, I've just halted work on the 4th book to come and say hi to you all, and I've gone and checked a few places out, too.

Now that I'm back to 7 hours of work--which translates to 8--I will have less time to stop by and see all of you and post, but I'll do my best.

Happy Monday!

Just To Get You All Excited for The BI-I-I-G NIGHT!

I know that a lot of you are going to go to the opening night of the very last (boo-hoo) Harry Potter film. Here is one of the posters from MuggleNet.

I'm waiting until the throng has been and gone and, along with all the other like-minded people who wait for the third or fourth week when we can have lots of elbow room at the theater and not have to sit next to someone's kids hopped up on too much sugar. I might be hopped up, but I can handle it. I've hung from chandeliers since a child and still can manage the sugar high--just joking. I've quit drinking pop (except for the occasional root beer float!)

So, since I know pretty much how it ends, I can wait.

Among things of a different sort, this morning as I was getting into the black beauty (F150) to go to work, Dennis looked down on the ground from the doorway after wishing me a good day and said "Ew! What's that?"

I powered down the window and saw the odd thing. Pink-sh and white. I couldn't make it out. I had to get out of the truck. Well, I could see it was the head of some animal, and the spine detached from the body--oh, and one paw. It was lying on it's back (although the back was no longer around anywhere).

I figured out quickly the animal which had been obviously eaten, and the prize head a token to head master of the house. It was an opossum. We have a semi-wild cat that roams the area, once in a while it will station itself under one of the trucks watching for little varments around the house to go after. Our little hunter. 

I remember the night my husband took out some milk for it. It ran off, but came back and drank the milk down. That was months ago. Well, I think Ms. Kitty (I named her, as she was a calico), merely returned the favor.

"She left you a token gift," I told him.

"There really wasn't much left to eat."Dennis joked.

"I said TOKEN gift," I reitterated. "She repayed you."

"D'you really think a cat could take down a 'possum?" he wondered.

"They're pretty slow."

"But it must have eaten the whole thing. That's pretty big for a cat to eat."

"Well, maybe she's hungry, or is eating for six or eight." I'd said it was likely she could be preggy, since our neighbors have a lot of cats.

So, as ishy as the head was, it was nice of Ms. Kitty to bring it around. Better than a skunk--which would have been quite nasty smelling.

Hope your week is going by smoothly.

(My spell check was not working in this, so I think I got all the misspellings, but if not, sorry)

Milestone . . . ooo! I know this one!

Okay, maybe it's a not big deal, or earth-shattering news but here it is: "author works on her WIP, and achieves word count goals. FINALLY!" Big deal.

But it was a goal which had been glaring me in the face. It was being mean, taunting me: "You'll never reach it . . . na-na-na-na-nah!!!!" for months now, because I'd been too busy with the second book, Vampire's Trill, editing it so as to send it off to my publisher so that they can someday put it out there for those of you who are fans of Vampire Ascending, because you've been clawing me for the next installment.

Well, kidies, I've managed to get my book, Beyond the Black Veil -- a.k.a. WIP-- into a more healthy word count zone to be considered a novel, and not a novella, to 94,471 words, so humph! I'm nearly done with the first draft (which I've gone over the front part of it so much, playing and editing it to death, it's sort of a 20th/10th/4th/2nd/and 1st draft all in one. Yeah, I'm a fly by the pants writer. So get over it already!

And my week-long vacation ends soon *pooh*, and I go back to the bus driving *bluchk*. But I've had a great week, had some time away from this--went for a hike in the pines with my husband and we had lunch; we bought a few more things for the kitchen, and YAY! We finally have knobs on the doors and drawers (had to do this ourselves, but it's done)! Eventually I'll get shelving paper in all the cupboards & drawers. But it's been wonderful having a nice new kitchen.

Lastly, my book, Vampire Ascending, was one featured in Raven's Vampire Books newsletter. I received mine this morning. Looks good along with all the other books. I've told her about the eventual release of my next book--have not actual date as yet. They've just begun work on it, and I'm really excited about what sort of cover it will have.

Oh! and before I forget, I'm to have another interview on another blog later this month. I'll keep you posted, when it happens.

I've placed a few bits and pieces from Beyond the Black Veil on my other blogs, this one was a latest with Alucard having drugged Sabrina and he's the vampire with the foot fetish. This little excerpt is here, if you wish to read that.

Okay, I'm newsed out. Happy 4th everyone!