Now and Forever ... in Pictures!

The photograph itself doesn't interest me. I want only to capture a minute part of reality. ~Henri Cartier Bresson

So, I realized yesterday that I hadn't made a collage for "Now and Forever"! I was horrified, and so sat down to do so. I discovered one thing: it's pretty much impossible to locate a sweet-looking (as opposed to mostly naked and provocatively posted) chubby ...er ... voluptuous blonde woman. Mena, my heroine, has curves. I didn't want a model who looked like a death camp survivor.

In any case, here's what I came up with (Gram should be older and thinner ... but for some reason, I couldn't find REALLY old, skinny women either):



The cool thing was, while making the collage, I saw a picture that gave me an idea for another scene! YAY.

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DD's been rescheduled for her "shadow day" at that school we're going to try to get her enrolled in next year. It's THIS Thursday. She's actually excited about it -- more excited than nervous, so I'm very happy.

I'll probably be a wreck on Thursday, but for now ... happy.

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You Are Opaque Pantyhose

You are a practical person. You don't have any room for fluff in your life. You are a creative problem solver. You've figured out what works for you, and you just go with that. You are original and independent without trying to be. You just seem to pick paths that are less traveled. You are brainy and you love difficult intellectual challenges. You don't have patience for your time being wasted.

What Kind of Panty Hose Are You?

Well... that pretty much NAILED me. It's a little eerie...

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On NaNo and Dreams

Dreaming permits each and every one of us to be quietly and safely insane every night of our lives. ~William Dement

I'm alternately ready and OH-SO not ready for NaNoWriMo to start. I have a long list of ideas for scenes and have been messing with my favorite scene question:

What would (the character) NEVER do? Now ... find a way for (the character) to do it.

Always fun and challenging.

I also updated my collage for the story:



Geoff is going to be swallowed up into a family of crazy sisters -- all artists of some sort and full of fun and energy. He's a little out of his depth. And, if you look up in the corner, that's Liv and Mike. We'll touch base with them now and then throughout the story as well.

I know I have more to do to be truly prepared, and I have to figure out how to work around DH's "I'm off all month" November schedule to find time to write AND get all my work done.

I may need to commit myself to the funny farm come December 1st. Maybe before.

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I had an incredibly vivid dream last night. I didn't live here, I was in a house in the city with a smaller backyard. The yard was FULL of a thriving vegetable garden: tomatoes and squash. The plants were huge and full of ripe fruit and needed harvesting. The colors were so vivid -- I remember seeing heirloom tomatoes in all colors: orange, yellow, pink. Everything was too big -- the squash fruit was enormous, the tomatoes the size of my head. And I had to army crawl under them to get anywhere, and when I did I discovered that something had come along at that level and taken a bite out of every tomato underneath. I was also raising tomato worms in my caterpillar box!

My mom was there, and in the dream she and DD were leaving in her car to go somewhere and I had to harvest everything by myself. The tomato worms were out of food, too, so I had to replenish their supplies.

I think I need a dream analyst on staff. I have the strangest dreams...

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You Are Bold

You are a total go getter. You aren't meek about speaking your mind and taking action. You are successful and a high achiever. You like to work hard, and you like the rewards that come with your success. While you are very career focused, you are also family oriented. You seek a balanced life. You have lofty goals, but you still have your feet firmly planted on the ground.

The Snack Test

Pretty close to all correct.

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Today, the Night Before

Talent is cheaper than table salt. What separates the talented individual from the successful one is a lot of hard work. — Stephen King

I'm writing this the night before, so that I have plenty of time to write in the morning. If you want to know my word count for the day, check JaNoWriMo a little later for what I've accomplished.

Today was crazy -- I had lots of work to do on the LASR/WC site, but despite this, DH decided to cut down a huge oak tree in our back yard. DD and I went out to help after it was down: dragged brush, moved logs, stacked them in the place where the OLD stuff we just split and moved used to be so it can season for next year.

I also hurt myself. I have a bad toe -- no one seems to be able to figure out WHY it hurts all the time, but it does. It's the big toe on my right foot (and writing that makes me think of a song the Smothers Brothers sang:

I have a daisy on my toe,
It's not alive it does not grow,
It's just a tattoo of a flower
So I look neat taking a shower,
It's on the second toe of my left foot,
A stem and flower, but there's not root,
(spoken) Because that wouldn't look good.
I have a daisy on my toe,
My right foot loves my left foot so-o-o-o-o.

*ahem* ... moving on...) and it's -- my toe, remember?-- it's hurt for a good ten years or so. In any case, today while I was carrying a log to the trailer on our tractor, I stumbled and landed with that toe on the edge of a log. I heard :::crackle, crack, crackle::: and then was overcome with pain. It's currently swollen and bruised, and it's a little hard to walk.

Ow.

I also had to make dog food. I'd cooked the chicken yesterday, and had DD remove it from the bones this morning while I chopped and cooked veggies. When we came in from processing the tree, I put the dog food together.

And I still had time to do the LASR/WC pages AND this:



Because NaNoWriMo isn't NaNoWriMo without a collage.

How was your weekend?

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You Are Milk Chocolate

A total dreamer, you spend most of your time with your head in the clouds. You often think of the future, and you are always working toward your ideal life. Also nostalgic, you rarely forget a meaningful moment... even those from long ago.

What Kind of Chocolate Are You?

Blogthings: A Fine Line Between Insight and Stupidity

Hmmm... maybe.

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THAT'S Why!

Inside some of us is a thin person struggling to get out, but they can usually be sedated with a few pieces of chocolate cake. ~Author Unknown

Check out Tess Gerritsen's blog post: Writing books can make you fat.

HA.

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DD got an intro to the Body Shop yesterday. Back when I was footloose and fancy free (read: SINGLE) I used to practically live in that place. I didn't realize how much I missed and how much I can't justify spending that much money on lotion now. LOL...

Still, we did buy some things. I paid for some, but DD had to pay for part. She only had $20, which doesn't go very far there. She really wanted the pink grapefruit body scrub, but didn't want to spend the money. I wanted the Satsuma body butter, but didn't want to spend the money.

We compromised by getting four bars of soap: two pink grapefruit and two satsuma. And DD bought exfoliating gloves (to use in lieu of the body scrub).

But, man-oh-man... if I won the lottery? I'd go to town!!

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It's raining. In mid-February. A couple of weeks ago, we had near record-breaking cold temps and tons of snow. Today it's raining. And then the temps are supposed to plunge again over the weekend. Fun, fun, fun...

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I'm working like crazy on my fantasy... I really need to update my word count on the side bar over there ------>

It's been great, but I don't know if I have enough story to get to my goal of 65k. I guess we'll see. I'm feeling like I only have 15 - 20k left, give or take, which will give me about 50k. That's not good.

I did think of one thing I need to add in to what I've already written. I need my heroine to get a little training in using her gift. She's pretty much self-taught at this point, but I'm going to need her to be more controlled in a situation that's coming up, and it won't work if she hasn't gotten at least SOME help.

Hey, did I ever upload the collage here? I don't think I did -- I think I only put it at the JaNoWriMo blog.

Check it out:



It's a really intense story. Very unlike me. I wonder where it's all coming from?

Anyway, I still have 45 mins to write, so I'm off!

Have a great day.

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If You're Interested...

I posted a collage of one of my JaNoWriMo novels at that blog today.

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Collages and Contests

Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia. ~E.L. Doctorow

So, Saturday Groovy asked me what I use the collage for. I actually post the collage of whatever my current WIP is as wallpaper on my computer and use it to remember what my characters look like! LOL...

I'm only partly joking about that. As I've mentioned before, I frequently travel from one story to another, so it's easy to forget what color hair someone has. I also like to remember some of the important things in a story, and that's easy to lose sight of.

So, I have collages for most of my WIPs.

Return to Stiller Creek:



The Possibility of Forever (Formerly Camilla's Critters):


One Love for Liv:



You saw what I have for Kitchen Matches. I'm still working on one for "Playing House" and "Queen and Assassin" (that one will undoubtedly be the toughest, since it's a fantasy).

Yes, I do use the pix of the H/H and pets to send to the art departments of both publishers. But, mostly I do it for me.

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~~~permission to forward granted~~~

The Long and the Short of It's First Annual Short Story Contest

It's said everyone has at least one story inside them. This is your chance to let yours out. The Long and the Short of It is seeking the best new short story 1,000 words or less.

So... put on your thinking cap, dial up your muse, and give it a shot. The story must be a romance and must end with a HEA. PG-13 or less, please. You can see samples of the types of stories we're looking for by checking their short story archive here.

The Grand Prize Winner will receive, in addition to publication on The Long and the Short of It website, a banner for their blog or website, one year free book cover/banner advertising, six months author pages, plus an award certificate suitable for framing.

First prize will receive publication on The Long and the Short of It website, a banner for their blog or website, six month author page + three month free book cover/ banner advertising, plus an award certificate suitable for framing.

Second prize will receive publication on The Long and the Short of It website, a banner for their blog or website, three months book cover/banner advertising, plus an award certificate suitable for framing.

Five honorable mentions will receive publication on The Long and the Short of It website, a banner, plus an award certificate suitable for framing.

TWELVE DOOR PRIZES (randomly drawn from all participants):

One copy of Beginnings, Middles & Ends by Nancy Kress

Six autographed books

Six goodie bags

Please send your entry via email (lasrcontests @ gmail.com-- no spaces) with the subject line: Short Story Contest: NAME OF STORY

Your entry will be provided to our judges with all identifying names removed and will be scored by a rating system.

Deadline for this contest is June 14, 2008. The winners and runners up will be posted July 1, 2008. By entering the contest, you agree to allow The Long and the Short of It to publish your entry on the LASR website. All stories chosen to be published will be archived for a period of six months following publication. All rights revert back to the author at that time and, at the author's written request, the story will be pulled from our archives.

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What's Important to You... And What Isn't:

For you, primal needs like eating and sleeping are your top priorities. You don't mind having things to get done... as long as they don't pile up on you. You have trouble giving time to any of your priorities. You life is too busy and chaotic. You want thinking to be a high priority, but you don't take enough time for yourself.

The Priority Test

Collage for Kitchen Matches

A picture is worth a thousand words; a slide show is both. ~Author Unknown

I was starting to fill out the cover art sheet for "Kitchen Matches" (which may end up staying "Kitchen Matches" since we can't seem to think up anything better, though I did like "Cooking up Chaos"... what do you think?), and I thought I'd share the collage with you.



There are a few more things I'd like to add, but I haven't found the right pictures. Actually, originally I'd used these pix for my H/H:

Cori (modeled by Katie Holmes) --


Micah (modeled by Orlando Bloom):


And, truly I do like those pictures better, but I don't think Katie and Orlando would love me using them on the official collage.

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Your Wrestler Name Is...

Loose Tooth Sass

What's Your Wrestler Name?

Oh, yeah... that's intimidating. Ha.