Itty Bitty Baby Passport

Everyone with me now...

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

I just got Nicky's passport in the mail. It only took 10 weeks. I was afraid I was gonna have to pull some strings to get it to go through in time, but nope it showed up today. It's so cuuuute and there are all kinds of pretty multicolored pictures in it. Mine is so lame in comparison. I may just have to get a new one just so I can have a pretty one too!

It's so adorable that I would scan it and share it with you...if I didn't think that was breaking some serious federal laws. And Lesley doesn't break the law. no no no. Never ever!

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Thursday Thirteen #15

13 Characters from my WIP: Blood and Violets

Thanks for giving me the inspiration to do this one with your TT last week, Julia! I hope you don't mind my borrowing your lovely idea!

I make these 3D renders of all my favorite characters. It helps me get a good grip on them in my head.

1. The Heroine!

Marie Moonstone - Yes, Moonstone! I know, isn't it awful? She despises it and only introduces herself as Marie Smith. Marie has got more spunk than anyone should be entitled to. It's virtually impossible for her to get through even five minutes without getting into an argument. She hates being told what to do, and she doesn't let anyone boss her around except for her big brother. He convinced her to study Pre-Law when she'd much rather be studying theater. Her choice of careers becomes somewhat inconsequential, however, when she is kidnapped.

2. Our Hero!

Alexander Farmer was born in small village near Paris in 1674. When he's still pretty young he's kidnapped and made a vampire. These days he owns a chain of clubs called the Violets. One night he's out hunting and encounters Marie smoking behind the restaurant where she works as a waitress. He wouldn't have hurt her, just taken a little blood and sent her on her merry way, but she fights back and his anger gets the better of him. He accidentally knocks her back against the brick wall and puts her in a coma for a week. When he looks up one evening to find her in his club, he knows he wants her. He's been looking for someone to make his vampire child for years, and she is just what he's been after. If only he wasn't so attracted to her everything would be much more simple.

3. The Bouncer
Bruno - One of Alexander's men. This man is somewhat of a cross between Andre the Giant and a just as talkative but less annoying Dr. Phil. Although he's enormous and pretty darn intimidating, he's an absolute sweetie pie at heart. Yeap, his name is Bruno, and he's a bouncer. He really didn't have much choice in his occupations with a name like that and weighing in at just under 300 pounds.

4. The Bartender


Steve is a good guy. He tries to keep everyone else in line. Even Alexander has been known to yield to Steve's arguments on occasion.

5. The Accountant


Daniel's official title is accountant for The Violets, but he's also Alexander's personal lackey. He kisses the very ground he walks on. Why? Daniel really wants to be a vampire, and he's hoping someday Alexander will make him one. He's very much the jealous type and has a penchant for violence which can get him into trouble. A lot of trouble.

6. The Penndragon



Markus Canamore. He's referred to as The Penndragon, because that's the name of the vampire family from which he hails. The Penndragons and the De Lyons (Alexander's family) have been at war for centuries. It's only been the last half of the 20th century that they have even managed a truce. Markus approaches Alexander with a business proposal. He owns a chain of blood banks, the kind where you get paid for donating, and he needs a distribution point. The Violets is the perfect place.

*whispers* Don't tell any of my other heroes, but Markus is my absolute favorite! I'm probably going to be writing his book after I finish up with Blood and Violets. It's called Love is Immortal.

7. The Father



Finnr (Finn) Grimsson is the man who made Alexander a vampire. It was a different time, and he made some terrible mistakes with the way he raised his "children." Those mistakes are going to come back and haunt Marie and Alexander. They've already done seemingly irrevocable damage to the life of his favorite son, Tristan.

8. The Brother

Tristan Finnrsson was raised from the time he was four years old by Finn, and he was the only one who showed Alexander even the slightest kindness in the years he was held prisoner before he was changed. Alexander loved him dearly and was devastated when he disappeared in the 18th century. He hasn't shown his face in vampire society since. They have no idea whether he's alive or dead.

9. The Other Brother

Ricky Moonstone is Marie's very much older brother. He practically raised her from the time her parents died in a car wreck until she went off to college. He's a doctor and has worked hard for years to try to provide a good, stable life for Marie.

I'm out of important characters so here are a few fun pictures.

10. Marie kicking butt and taking names!

Marie has been taking Ashihara Karate and Brazilian Jujitsu since she was seven. They really didn't know what they were getting into when they kidnapped her...

11. The Attempted Brain Hijackers


These two keep trying to lure me away from Blood and Violets with their story. This is Arlan. He's king of the Dragons. The lovely lady with the purple hair is Jeanne. She's the nanny Arlan hires to take care of the little girl who showed up on his doorstep claiming to be the reincarnation of his dead grandmother, who just happened to be Queen of the Fairies.

I keep telling them that there are things that happen in their book that have to be set up. At least, two other books have to be finished after this one before I can even go there! They don't care. They want me to play with them now. hehe My characters boss me around A LOT!


12.



This is Fiona O'Sithein from the last book I finished. Right here she just happens to be using her womanly wiles to try to lure Beltran away from his good intentions.

13.

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The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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Is a scrap of photocopied paper too much to ask?

I just had a submission returned that did not have any correspondence in it whatsoever. I am not asking for a commentary, but in the very least a photocopied form letter would have been nice. Heck, a post it note with "You suck!" written on it would have at least been something...

I can only assume that this was the submission I sent to an agent who had requested a partial. I just emailed said agent after waiting six months for a reply. In the email they sent back, there was a form letter saying they weren't interested. Now that's fine. At least I got a response. Still this returned submission could have at least had a little scrap of paper saying where it had been returned from. The original letter that I included was no longer with it so it could have been any number of submissions had it not come so soon after the email.

Perhaps I'm over-reacting, but I found it a bit rude.

Nicky's Academy Award Winning Performance

My darling boy is set to be the next world's greatest actor. Now you may think this is just Mommy Bragging Rights, but let me just tell you this little tale.

I couldn't stop laughing for a good ten minutes afterwards.

Nicky's little friend, Kaida, was visiting and they were playing one of their favorite games. It involves running from one side of my living room to the other as fast as they can and screaming all the while. Ah, Infant Joy!

So she somehow managed to trip and bang her little head against the wall.

No, this is not why I laughed for 10 minutes. I'm not THAT evil!

She was, of course, very sad so she went and climbed up into Lisha, her Mommy's, lap and got lots of cuddles and loving. Well Nicky seeing that she was sad walked over and climbed up on the couch with her and started patting Kaida to make her happy and then tried to get Lisha's attention. So I picked him up, told him she was busy,gave him a cuddle, and set him down on the floor.

Nicky looked around at everyone. He must have been assessing the best course of action in his quest for world domination by cuddles, because he then walked over to the wall where she'd hit her head, knelt down, smacked his head soundly against the wall twice in a row, and then stood up. Lisha and I looked at each other, and agreed that he must have done it on purpose, then a full ten seconds after he bonked his head he let loose a howl! Not just a howl but a perfect mimic of the howling cry that poor Kaida had given when she accidentally hit her head.

He then stopped and looked from me to Lisha, obviously waiting for us to fall all over ourselves to rush to his aid and cover him with loving kisses and cuddles. That wasn't quite the reaction he received. We both busted up into fits of laughter that were so dehabilitating that neither of us could speak for the next five minutes, and we were both crying and in pain by the time we got ourselves under control. Which reminds me of a certain story that involves what I thought was chap stick and a creative writing class...but that's a story for another day.

My son was quite naturally very put out by this turn of events. The look he gave us told me exactly what he thought of the fact that we were laughing at his "accident." Of course, he got some extra cuddles when I could finally stop laughing at him for five minutes.
Babies just crack me the heck up!!!

Thursday Thirteen #14

13 of my Favorite Blinkies

So you know blinkies right? They are those silly little graphics that you put at the bottom of your signature or whatever. I absolutely adore them. I don't actually put them anywhere... I just sit and look at them. So I figured this was a good use!

1. Yes, my friends, they are!!!!

2.
If you are unfamiliar with the lengths to which my Geekiness has gone, just scroll down to the next couple of posts.

3.

And don't you forget it! *hugs her dragon protectors*

4. I don't! I won't! My husband does them. :D Okay, maybe if they are really bad, and he just won't...

5. Are you aware with just a little fairie dust and a happy thought you can actually fly? How can anyone go long without it?

6. And I'm scared of the dark! So you better bet I light them too!

7. *Wicked Evil Grin followed by a cute giggle* Dang it if I could just banish the giggle I would qualify for the full on evilness!

8. You can't be anyone else! You shouldn't want to be. You can make of yourself absolutely anything you want. It just takes time and dedication! And repetition. And repetition. Oh...did I say that twice? ;)

9. Or no one else will!

10. You better bet your booty!

11. Oh, yeah, I'd worship at that altar!

12. Well...Okay...maybe not! But I sure do wish it was. Then maybe it wouldn't be quite so scary!

13. I could go on and on about the use of this biblical passage to keep women down throughout history...but I'll just keep it light. Trust me...She was framed! Stinky old boys! ;)



Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

I had no idea how much of a geek I really was...

Now, I've always been pretty comfortable with my geekiness. I am a geek. I accept that fact. Embrace it even.

But I was just looking through some old backup CDs, and I found something that if I don't acknowledge now could possibly be used as blackmail in the future.

So here it goes...

*Steels herself*

I actually made custom .wav files for Baldur's Gate. Yes, I recorded with my own voice all the little sounds your character says throughout the game.

Now it would have been bad enough to do it for one character, but I did it for two.

...

*Deep breath*

The second character was a bard, so every one of her files is actually a song that I sang.

Okay, that's it. I've owned it! Now when Nicky stumbles across this CD when he's a teenager and tries to make me buy him a Corvette, or he releases it to the public I can tell him, "So? The whole world knows! It's on the internet!"

Whew...I feel better now that I got that off my chest!

Are Templar swords really meant for slaying serpents? Methinks not!

We got to chatting about fears in one of the yahoo groups I frequent the other day. That led to a discussion about snakes, which reminded me of an incident which occurred about three years ago...

One day when we lived in a little apartment in town, my cat started acting more peculiar than usual. Which if you knew my little Aine, you would know is saying quite a lot! She kept walking into the living room looking at us then going back into the bathroom. My husband got up to check it out, and he came out of the bathroom with this horrible look on his face. I'm like...WTH? So he walked over to where he had his Templar sword leaning up against the wall behind the door. (Have I mentioned we're super mega geeks? Yeah... we are.) And looked back at me, sword in hand, and my big, brave warrior said, "There is a snake in the bathroom!"

I, naturally, assumed he was screwing around with me, because he is well known for that. I can only believe approximately ten percent of what he says because generally he is teasing. The only problem with that is that I'm incredibly gullible and sometimes he forgets to tell me he was lying... That makes for Lesley saying some lame stuff let me tell you. Or at least it did until I realized I have to google any story he tells me to check its accuracy.

Him: "Really."

Me: "So WTH do you think you're gonna to do with that sword? Hack a snake to pieces in my bathroom? Is it even poisonous?"

I'm sure he was thinking at this point. Is my wife completely insane? We have a snake in our bathroom, and she is fighting for its life?

So I went into the bathroom to take a peek at the snake... At this point he was disappearing behind the washing machine, but I got a pretty good look at him. He was about six feet long and maybe an inch and a half thick, black with yellowish white spots. So I made my hubby move the washing machine back so I could peek in at him.

I had no idea what kind of snake he was at this point, but I could tell he wasn't poisonous by the shape of his head and his eyes. See I was paying attention in my Science classes all those years. :-D So then I sent my husband to get the landlord, and I stood there with my sword and my laptop making sure he didn't make a break for it and get lost somewhere in the house.

Why the laptop you ask?

Good question. Well, I had to make sure I was right about him not being poisonous so I googled him while keeping guard with the sword. This is, in fact, a rather difficult task. I am not used to wielding a large Templar sword complete with extremely heavy brass hilt! My arm got pretty tired while I one-hand typed "Arkansas black spotted snake" into my google toolbar. It turned out he was a spotted king snake. Completely harmless and known for killing bad snakes like rattlers.

Just about this time, my hubby, the landlord, his wife, his daughter and her boyfriend showed up. Their tools of snake combat? One of those long things with the trigger that you use to grab things that are far away and a big, plastic container that you use for storage. The landlord then proceeded to prove that he was a big ole chicken. He didn't even want to come in the apartment. His daughter and my husband managed to grab the snake with the pincher thing and wrestle him into the plastic container.

Of course you're asking what I was doing all this time. Why wasn't I battling the fearsome snake> I had to hold the dog that wanted to eat it! See and you thought I was just being cowardly.

The day ended well. The poor, little terrified snake was born freed in the woods near our apartment instead of being splattered around my bathroom. I can't tell you how little I wanted to clean that up!

My kitty cat has since been dubbed Aine the Brave, Snake Hunter Extraordinare.

We moved out of that apartment about a month after that...

Snake Sighting

I saw one of these little guys when I was weedeatting today. I think I scared him half to death. He scared me a little bit too. I thought he was a worm!

If I had money I'd put up a GIANT fence...

Why? Well, let me just tell you.

We have about an acre and a half of land. One acre of that is pretty much useless at the moment. It's a slightly sloped pasture. The person that had it before us had several horses on it. Now you're not supposed to have more than about a horse per acre. Unless, of course, you're feeding them a great deal of grains in addition. Well I have no idea what he was feeding his horses, but I do know that when we moved in there was NOTHING growing on the field. We live in the mountains so when there is nothing growing you get erosion. What's under the top soil in the mountains? That's right, my friends! Rocks! Big ones! Giant ones even!

So we had a field we couldn't mow for all the rocks and even if we could all we had was a push mower my husband probably would have dropped dead before he finished it. Well now we've got our lawn tractor so we're going to start the long and arduous process of making it a big field that we can mow and the little munchkin can play in.

Hmm...I got off track here. I was going to tell you why I would put up a huge fence. Well I was cleaning up the beer cans that someone dumped in front of our house by the road. I'm not pointing fingers. I can't prove who it was. I have a good idea though. Whatever. So when I was cleaning those up and walked the length of our property by the road. We have this little creek at the far end. It'll be cute once we get it all cleaned up. Apparently someone was using it to dump garbage before we moved in. Again I dunno know who. It doesn't really matter. We're going to clean it up. Well apparently someone saw this and thought, "hey, I'll dump my garbage down there." In the little creek! Now first and foremost let's talk about how that creek feeds into a river somewhere! That's just pollution!

So I cleaned it up and now I'm going to go buy a big NO DUMPING signs. Which I've always thought looked kinda trashy, but not near as trashy as having garbage dumped on your land. I ended up with an entire bag full of other people's garbage. Including like 5 empty bottles of cheap whiskey. Someone really needs to lay off the liquor. Maybe that's why they don't have the sense not to dump their trash on other peoples land!

Beltran Revisited

Yes, I just think he's so cute I had to play with him some more. ;)

Thursday Thirteen #13

Hmm…Thursday 13 #13 the day before Friday the 13^th…

This could get a little freaky deaky, baby!

13 Reasons I'm Ecstatic I FINALLY Got my Wireless Keyboard for my PDA Working

After a good week of struggling with this little beast, my husband found me a link that helped me figure out what the heck was wrong with it and fix it. It required that I download a driver that a fellow Axim owner had actually altered to make it work for our Axim 51s.

1. It was driving me CRAZY!!!
   

   Seriously it made no sense. I had done everything that everyone said to do, and it kept lying to me and telling me that another process was trying to use the Infrared.
   

2. I can now work on scenes that pop into my head ANYWHERE!!!
   

   Seriously, the combined weight of this keyboard and my axim is like 1 pound! I can pop it in my purse, and jot down scenes on the fly. I can't stand hand writing anymore! It is sooo slow! It saps my creativity. I do still like to plan with a pen and paper though.
   

3. I can reward my husband for finding the link that helped me fix it. ;)
   
4. I can work on my newest novel all the way to Denmark in September.
   

   Yeah, sure I can, in a world where my two-year old sits in his daddy's lap napping the entire way! Like that'll happen! But I could if I didn't have to wrangle a toddler all the way there. *shivers in horror just thinking of the 8 hour flight*
   

5. I can respond to email anywhere there is wireless internet!
   
6. I can thumb my nose at the people from customer service who wouldn't help me.
   
7. I don't have to carry my laptop to Denmark in order to be able to write and email my friends!
   

   All I need to do is get a converter, and I'm good to go!
   

8. I could write my Thursday 13 in my car, while waiting to pick up my husband if I wanted to!
   

   I mean I didn't! But I could! And how cool is that!!!
   

9. It's a good ego boost!
   

   I like fixing things that are broken. It doesn't matter what they are. I want to buy an old junker and rebuild the engine. Do I know anything about cars? Well, I know where the gas goes and how to check the oil and change a tire, but that's about it. It doesn't mean I couldn't learn though! Maybe a Fabulous Hudson Hornet! Has Lesley seen the movie Cars too many times? Yes, yes, she has!!! Nicky is obsessed with it!
   

10. I can use it to finish the revisions on Fiona O'Sithein even if I'm not at home!
    

    Okay, first I'd have to figure out how to make the Mobile Word open the new docx files, but if I could do that then I could totally revise on the run. I could also just convert the files but that would be too easy.
    

11. I could type up a post gloating about how the USA beat Uruguay (where my hubby was born) in the U20 World Cup last night.
    

    Do I care about soccer? Heck no! I do like tormenting my man who lives by it though!
    

12. I could type up all those cute things that Nicky does and do a T13 about them!
    
13. I can be completely Mobile, MSN Messenger on the go and all!
    

    I'm telling you! It gives me goose bumps. :-D
    

Yes, my friends, I know how much of a geek I am!



Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

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*Lesley is a Nervous Girl*

Whew! I just entered a couple things in the Romance Junkies writing contest. And now I'm absolutely all aflutter! I'm looking forward to any commentary that I might get back on them even if they don't do well.

It's so scary putting your little babies out there in front of the world for criticism!!!

Organizational Woes

Now no one is going to ever claim that I'm organized. Not even jokingly. If they did a lightening bolt would come down from the heavens and strike them dead on the spot.

I want to be organized! I try to be organized! I buy all kinds of organizational tools! I love organizational stuff! Notebooks, little caddies for household items, calendars, wall things that you're supposed to hang your keys on. And what happens. The notebooks get piled in a pretty little pile, the calendar never gets touched, and my keys end up places like in the refrigerator. Yes, it's happened! Oh, hush, its not that weird! I probably put it there when I was putting away groceries or something.

Anyway! I finally at least organized my computer files for my writing yesterday. It took two good hours, but now they are organized into fragments that are related, fragments that are undeveloped story ideas, and that sort of thing. I even have a file of "supporting documents" which includes stuff like the time line of my series, a spreadsheet with the facts about my vampire families, a doc with favorite quotes. You know, the really geeky stuff.

So upon further investigation, I have seven fully developed or almost fully developed outlines and various scenes for WIPs and about 40 things that could be developed into full-fledged novels. Will I ever get to writing all these? Who knows! But at least they are organized now. ;)

Out, damned apostrophe! out, I say!

I've been working so hard to actually use contractions, which is something that for some reason I have difficulty doing, that I'm afraid I've accomplished my goal a little TOO well. I was trying to type up something for a professional report today, and it was chock full of contractions. That's a big no no! Good thing I'm an obsessive editor. ;) Except where it comes to my blog. *scolds herself*

*Curses Loudly*

Oh, I'm having an angry night!

First of all I bought this awesome fold up keyboard that is supposed to work with my Axim 51v. It would be amazing because then I could write with a full size keyboard anywhere anytime. It fits in my purse no problem, but it keeps telling me there is another process trying to use the infrared port. No matter what I do it doesn't fix it! I have had a team of people helping with it and no luck! I'm just about to cry!

And also I'd like to find the person who rented the last Disk of HEX three weeks ago and hasn't brought it back yet, and give them a sound thrashing! Dang it, people! I need to know who the heck this strange demon hunting woman is!!! I sure hope Season two is on dvd too, because otherwise I may just explode from the stress of not knowing!

I think that Azazeal is actually a good guy. I refuse to believe that someone that adorable could be bad. ;) And he loves his little boy! Really! Come now! How could he be all bad?

Go Me!

Finished the revisions I was doing to Arianna Penndragon last night. Now I'm on to working on Fiona O'Sithein. Although I may have to take a few days off and work on the outline for a book that just came to me. Revisions make me such a tired girl!

Thursday Thirteen #12

13 Books I’ve Read Recently
I am exhausted from a night of fireworks and revelry so my brain is not terribly prone to being creative. I'm just gonna list all the books I've read recently, starting with the one I'm reading now.

1. Polly’s Perilous Pleasures by Daisy Dexter Dobbs
2. Making Chase by Lauren Dane
3. Tempting Darkness by Rene Lyons
4. The Daystar by Rene Lyons
5. Midnight Sun by Rene Lyons
6. Buying Mackenzie’s Baby by Kim Rees
7. Eyes of Crow by Jeri Smith-Ready
8. Morrigan’s Cross by Nora Roberts
9. Dance of the Gods by Nora Roberts
10. Valley of Silence by Nora Roberts
11. Dark Dream by Christine Feehan
12. Dark Legend by Christine Feehan
13. Dark Guardian by Christine Feehan

Yes, I know...I'm a Series fiend. I can't resist reading them. I can't resist writing them. Yay for Series!



Get the Thursday Thirteen code here!


The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted!

View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Why I shouldn't be in the room when someone is reading one of my books...

My husband is reading Fiona O'Sithein, and, of course, he always seems to be doing it when I'm in the room. So when he laughs or makes a comment aloud, which is apparently supposed to be to himself, I respond with...

"What??? What is it?"

What am I supposed to do? I really just have to know what the heck it is he found so funny! Now if I hadn't intended it to be funny, I would be very upset by all these outbursts of hysterical laughter, but since it was intentional I'm pretty darned flattered.

When he was about 50 pages of reading into it, he started teasing me every single time I asked him what he was laughing at. So I tried to ignore him and then naturally every time he laughed he would look at me and wait for a response. To which I had to hide my head behind my laptop from him. :-D

So from now on unless he can be quiet or take the questions he is just going to have read them in another room!

Meet My New Friends

Who hasn't read the romance novel about the rich, handsome man, who hires a beautiful young woman to be the nanny to his young child? I know I've always enjoyed them. Well here we have the same story... Only with a twist. A rather large twist.

The rich, handsome man is Arlan, the King of the Dragons, and the child isn't his child at all. She's the reincarnation of his grandmother, the Queen of the Fairies.

Then things start getting really complicated...