Sunday, April 20, 2008

Tagged and A Conversation With Myself

People from a planet without flowers would think we must be mad with joy the whole time to have such things about us. ~Iris Murdoch, A Fairly Honourable Defeat

Melissa tagged me yesterday. I've done this in the past, and so have challenged myself to think of something new and exciting to list.

Here are the rules:

Tagging Rules:
a. Link to the person who tagged you.
b. Post the rules on your blog.
c. Write six random things about yourself.
d. Tag six random people at the end of your post by linking to their blogs.
e. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment at their blog.
f. Let your tagger know when your entry is up.


Here are my six Random things:

1. I've discovered that I don't mind squirrels at my bird feeders as long as they're on the ground, picking up all the loose seed from my "no mess" (aka without the shells) bird food. I've also discovered that this seed shouldn't be called "no mess" because it still makes a huge mess. But at least the seeds don't grow.

2. My cat and Amy's are twins separated at birth. Seriously. Here's my cat, Breeann:



And Amy has a picture of her cat here.

Eerie, isn't it?

3. I don't like white flowers. I think they're dull. They're quiet and fade into the background. I do my best to not buy white flowers for anywhere in my garden -- except white geraniums because they are toxic to Japanese beetles, so I buy those in bulk and plant them around the plants I own that attract beetles the worst.

4. I don't like white chocolate AT ALL. I would rather not eat candy EVER than eat white chocolate. White chocolate should be banned from the candy shelves or, at the very least, shouldn't be allowed to call itself "chocolate".

5. I have absurdly low blood pressure. Both numbers are always double digits, like: 80 over 60. My doctor doesn't seem concerned, and I'm just glad I love salty food, or I'd probably be dead. The doc says it may account for the fact that I'm always cold (yet another reason to get the heck out of the Northeast).

6. I apologize to plants when I prune them or pull them up. I feel oddly obligated to root and then plant any cuttings I can, which may account for the sheer volume of house plants I own. However, I discovered that my library will take plant donations. ((evil laughter))

And...I'm not tagging anyone, but if you need something to write about, feel free to consider yourself tagged!

=======================

So, yesterday I sat down and had a talk with myself. I have all these great, new ideas for stories (including a sequel to "Liv") and find myself drifting all over the place with my writing. It's been frustrating, to say the least.

I gave myself a harsh talking to: "Look at all these partly done novels! It's ridiculous to have these hanging around, nearly finished, all but ready to submit. Shame on you for starting them and not finishing them."

Myself hung her head in shame and agreed that it was, indeed silly to spend all that time and effort on a project, only to stop more than halfway through. So myself opened up the document closest to being completed yesterday, "Return To Stiller Creek", and wrote.

And wrote.

And wrote.

Myself nearly finished the book! I still haven't got a clue where to submit it -- it can't be Samhain because I recently saw that they don't want suspense novels particularly, and I don't want to sub to TWRP with it, because they don't print books less than 65k through Lightning Source and I don't want to be in print through LuLu. It's not suspenseful enough for Harlequin Intrigue, but too suspenseful for American.

It may be a complete waste of time, but at least it will be finished.

===========================




What These Orchids Say About You



You are exotic and intricately beautiful.

You possess a unique grace that's both delicate and strong.

You are thoughtful and refined. You are the definition of class.



Oh yeah. That's me, to a "T". Yep....

12 comments:

Dru said...

Kudos on nearly finishing Return to Stiller Creek. I saw your word count and was impressed. I hope you're able to find a home for this submission.

I agree with your number 4. When I'm offered white chocolate, my standard statement is "cacao = chocolate = brown and case close."


What An Iris Says About You

You are incredibly hopeful and courageous.

Even when you've been challenged in life, you have faith that everything will work out.

Your feelings run deep, and you are a very grateful person.


Have a good Sunday.

Jen said...

Hey, I'm still waiting to trade that MS with you, now that you're DONE! ;-)

And I'm with you on both points 5 and 6. I love my low bp! It was genetic. Was your dad's or is your mom's also low? My dad's was.

anno said...

Congratulations! Hope you're celebrating with some dark chocolate!

Allie Boniface said...

Congrats on the writing progress - so terrific! Chats with Myself sometimes work wonders, don't they?

Dena said...

Thats great that you nearly finished RTSC, I hope you will be able to submit it somewhere. I think it's wonderful you have so many stories in your head and some down on paper-so to speak-it's good that you decided to finish the ones not done and hopefully the others will turn out to be sold.

My flowers were Roses but I'm not much of a bundle of sweetness,lol.

Anonymous said...

Wow! You're almost done? Doesn't that feel wonderful? I, too, have many unfinished projects. One day, I realized I kept stopping in the same place, so it wasn't that the project was necessarily flawed (though some of them were), it was that I was being a doofus. But now I finish books. So it's all good.

Tulips:
You are very popular and universally admired.

You are often hopelessly in love, and you connect to other people easily.

You are a naturally cheerful and upbeat person. You have an amazing smile.


Okay, I agree with number three, but nearly peed my pants laughing at the first part.

Dena said...

I forgot to ask; Did you find out what those blue flowers were? I thought maybe bluebonnets but I'm probably wrong.

Oh and your cat does look like Amy's. There so cute and chubby. All our cats are skinny, I wish we had a big one.

Marianne Arkins said...

Dena, Nope... still don't know what those flowers are. I even typed in "blue flowers bulbs" with spring blooming in Google and couldn't find them. It's a mystery.

And, yes, my cat is chubby much to my vet's dismay, though she has lost two pounds this year. She could stand another couple pounds since she's old and arthritic, but she already eats next to nothing.

Amy, yeah, I had a good laugh at my quiz answers, too! LOLOL...

Jen, the moment it's REALLY finished, not ALMOST finished, I'll send it your way. I haven't forgotten! And, BOTH my mom and dad have/had low blood pressure, so I guess I didn't stand a chance of not getting it, too. Except for the cold thing, I'm glad for it.

Allie, yep... somedays I just gotta get real with myself. Yesterday was one of those days.

Dru, what you said about white chocolate.

Brandy said...

White chocolate is cocoa butter. Why can't they just call it that? I'm not a fan of it either.
WTG! You wrote and nearly finished! Good for You!
Sorry you couldn't figure out what the flowers were. Next time my MIL is here, I'll show them to her. She'll know.
I liked the Iris'. *g*

Have a great day!
And um, my fat cat is larger than your fat cat. *G*

Ceri Hebert said...

Make that triplets, because I had a cat who looked just like yours and Amy's cats. I wish I had a picture.

Any white chocolate you get, send it my way. I loooove white chocolate, especially Lindor truffles. Heaven! But if you dont want to call it chocolate, that's fine.

I was thinking about all my partial wips in my files too. I have to do something with them. But if Blaze (if I can ever get my q & s to them) wants at least 2 submissions a year, well, I'm sure I have 4-5 already started.

I'm determined to try other publishers for my books-print publishers, except for the sequel I'm writing for Sweet Forever. That'll go to Samhain.

Melissa McClone said...

Thanks for doing the tag, Marianne. Loved your random things. And I agree 100% about white chocolate!

Anonymous said...

Did you know white flowers are sometimes the most fragrant? Seriously. And I need to send an e-mail your way, if I don't forget - again.