Happy New Year's Eve

Hi Guys!

Happy New Year's Eve day. Hope you all have great plans. I am getting off early, going home and playing with the critters, drinking a Margarita and working on the edits. Then I hope to spend a little time working on getting the calendars finished and mailed out, the prizes for trivia autographed and mailed out (including matting and framing Suzanne's), and all around getting caught up. Not that I can possibly accomplish it all, but I'm going to TRY.

I'm doing the first Double Feature tomorrow. I think. I hope. I have the submission from the other author. I just need to figure out what I'm putting in from us/me.

As to what has happened on the romantic suspense that was the Saturday Morning Breakfast Serial, I need your advice guys. Do you want me to try to finish it? It started out okay (I think), but I kind of got sidetrakced with, oh, life, and stuff, and I kind of was feeling a bit like a fish out of water. Having never done one a romantic suspense before I had no sense of whether it was (a) romantic enough or (b) even remotely suspenseful. Anyway, your opinions are actively solicited since we're starting a new year and our resolutions and all.

So write me. Let me know what you'd like to see in the blog from now on. Let me know (if you're posse) what you'd like me to do with/for the posse. If you're feeling frisky, send me pet photos and I will post them (assuming I figure out how) along with some of mine. Whatever. I just need some interaction.

:)

Oh, and I'm feeling just a bit dated (and not the happy kind with a cute guy). I am on Twitter, and MySpace and FaceBook (and I even try to show up there occasionally, but BOY by the time you do all that it really eats at the writing time). I've noticed that people seem to do more Tweeting and FaceBooking(?) and blogs are becoming passe. I like blogging. I like rambling posts that cover more thoughts and space than 142 characters can hold. But do YOU? Should I just consider this sort of a journal rather than expecting anybody to correspond and figure if you want to reach me you'll catch me on one of the "social networking sites"? And where do you stand on websites? (And if you say something like "on the very edge, on my tippy toes" I will hunt you down and kick you in the shins.)

Inquiring minds want to know!

Happy Frustration Day

I hereby declare this a brand new holiday. Welcome to FRUSTRATION DAY 2009. It comes right between major holidays but you don't get it off. Most offices, however, are closed, or working with skeleton crews, so you can't get anything much done, but at the same time you have all of the year end stuff due in an absolute crisis deadline.

My personal frustration day includes having the parts for the truck be defective, so that it is not truly fixed, and won't be until new parts arrive next week. (We hope.) They put it back together so that I can drive it in town and won't be stranded, but the new noise sounds like a mouse is screaming under my hood. (I joke that the gerbil is no longer happy running in his wheel and wants to retire, with a full pension). Also the usual "You're self-employed" schtoof when trying to get through the maze that is mortgage lending.

But everyone I know has something. I think it's the nature of modern living. And hey, if I can't go out of town and go to a movie, it's just encouragement to get my butt in gear and do the edits and the other writing. At least that's what I'm telling myself.

Good Evening Folks

1) The winner of trivia was Suzanne. However, there are others who came close. SO, as the winner she will get a framed and autographed cover flat for the first book from our new series. The next two or three will get one that is unframed. I will send e-mails to y'all to confirm addresses.

2) The parts people sent a wrong part on the truck. So it is not yet fixed. Sigh. I am vehicleless for the next 24 hours. Ah well.

3) Got in an interesting discussion with Cathy about blogging and privacy. She asked "what if you don't get a job because the prospective employer goes to your blog and reads about health problems and depression. Well, folks, the depression is managed and manageable. I've worked full time for a few years now with minimal absences (although, yes, I do have pain, thanks, and yes, I do work through it and all the other stuff). And if the person is going to read my blog and eliminate me as an candidate without even talking to me about it or checking with my references and current employer regarding my attitude and attendance, I probably woudn't fit in their organization. Do I think I should stop blogging to protect my privacy? Maybe. But I'm not going to do it.

OKAY Then

HOPE YOU ARE ALL HAVING A WONDERFUL HOLIDAY SEASON!!!!

Let's see -- Final tally on the trivia comes up tomorrow.
Goals -- I didn't meet them by Christmas. I know, you're shocked. Do-overs for New Year resolutions.
Writing -- Got the edits in on the 2nd book in the new series. Gotta get them turned around, so online writing went out the window for a bit. Hope to get back on track for that for the new year too.
Depression -- has receded considerably. I think (fingers crossed if you're not typing, if you are, toes will do) that I have found a home near Denver if the financing goes through. Applied for a killer job too, but we'll see how that pans out. The current job market is VERY tricky. But I need insurance, and retirement, SO, again, fingers/toes crossed.
Kitties -- did not get a home. We are still looking for help for them. Love em, they're adorable, but ARGH.
Transmission gets installed tomorrow--which means I will not be stuck in this small burg without so much as a bookstore, coffee house or movie theater for more than a couple more days. This is a relief. I'm hoping to go to the bigger town this weekend and do all my errand running and GASP watch a movie.
Calendars are in process.

And I'm lonely, so write or post comments. catadamsfans@gmail.com or below.

Bestest.

Cie

Focus

Okay, I go through stages. In fact, being the observant types you are, you probably have noticed it.

1. Exhausted and/or ill. (Frequently following a heavy push to complete a book on deadline.) Depressed. Practically incapable of coherent thought. I not only don't have ideas, I don't know if I'll ever GET another idea---and I'm not sure I care.

2. Feeling a little better. Grumpy, still not myself, but I am capable of tying my shoelaces, posting blogs, and doing some of the businessy stuff. Still no ideas, but I know they'll come.

3. Feeling a little bit better than that, but not close to normal. I start getting ideas. BOY do I start getting ideas. All over the place. My imaginary friends are all glad to see me again and clamoring for attention, waving their hands shouting "pick me, pick me!" Unfortunately there's not enough focus and brain function to write anything other than dreck and I hop from project to project looking for the "right" one. Of course when I can't write well there isn't a right one, but that doesn't seem to keep me from trying.

4. I am myself. WOO HOO. The brain is working. The fingers are working. Focus is on. And I'm probably behind on my deadlines because I spent so long in steps 1-3 above. ARGH!! I pick a project (generally the one that's um, well, DUE. But if there isn't one of those I pick one.) Since they all appeal to me, it's kind of random which I pick. Sometimes it's "well this one seems marketable" or "I've always wanted to finish this one, and it is more than half done." Whatever. I pick one. And I write, and write and write.

And then I get interrupted.

Edits come in. Life intervenes. Conferences come up.

And I finish it anyway. Because I'm STUBBORN.

But to do it I have to push. Hard. And my body rebels (because I have all this chronic crap that isn't all that serious, but isn't any fun either). And if it's contracted work, I turn it in. If it's not, I send it to the agent for a look-see. But any way you slice it. I push until I'm done. Toast. Incapable of complex thought and somewhat ill.

and we're back to step 1.

****************

Today I am right on the borderline between 3 and 4. I've been idea hopping. Some of the ideas are pretty damned dark. (Okay, more than pretty damned dark. Remember that short story I wrote where the war hero is stuck in his own mind in complete sensory deprivation as a form of torture. Yeah, that kind of cheery stuff. I can do light and fluffy. Most of the time I'm pretty cheerful. But when I go dark, it doesn't get much darker.) Some of them are so light they could float. But nothing is really coming together at this moment. BUT I think they might be in the next couple of days. Which would be really, seriously cool since I have several days off for Christmas holiday and am stuck in town anyway because the transmission hasn't arrived for the truck.

So maybe, just maybe, I'll get the calendars done and out AND get something written. Wouldn't that be cool?

Holly happidays everybody.

Cie

Trivia and Kitties

Okay, today is a little less weepy, although still a bit stressed. You see, the kitties were "too old" and "too shy" so they're back in my yard. But healthy, with their shots and tests done. And I will get them spayed/neutered in the next few weeks as well because I SOOOOOO do not need more feral cats. I am disappointed, but not surprised. They love me, and are affectionate with me, but they've never been around anyone else, so they weren't their usual selves at the vet. But I honestly believe that things work out for the best and God has plans for everything, so we'll just wait and see.

NOW, on to TRIVIA.

In honor of the Christmas season ---

Name as many movies as you can where St. Nick/Santa Claus is a main character. Person with the most Santas wins. Post answers to catadamsfans@gmail.com.

And just FYI right now Suzanne is in the lead.

Today

Okay, today I am feeling ambivalent. LOTS of things going on in my life. Tumultuous. Some good. Some not so good.

Today I took a pair of kitten/cats (adolescents) to the vet for the very first time. They were ferals that I had saved from starving and tamed to the point where they trust me, and allow me to pet them and show my deep affection for them. They went to the vet to make sure they were healthy for a woman who may choose to adopt them. Or not. She will see them tomorrow and make that determination.

I love them. I already am maxed out on animals, so I truly can't take them in. The indoor cats wouldn't tolerate it either. They've been acting out just having these guys come up on the porch. I know it is in the cats's best interest to have them be adopted out. I do. But I love them. And it tears me up to have caged them in the carriers, taken them to the vet and left them. I may very well never see them again. And it breaks my heart. Even though I know it's the right thing to do. And at the same time I worry that she won't want them, or they won't act tame enough, that maybe they'll only respond to me (which sometimes happens with formerly ferals. I have a couple of my indoor cats that just don't like other humans. They love me. They snuggle with me. But nobody else. Ever. Got it!). So I'm worried that they won't be adopted and loved, and sad that they might be, which is a seriously no-win situation.

But I'm pretty sure I did the right thing. I did tell the vet's assistants that if she doesn't want them, I'll take them back, that I'll figure something else out for them. But I hope she does want them. Except then I'll never see them again.

Gotta go or I'm gonna blubber.

Cie

A Very Posse Christmas and Pain Dreams

Cathy got the software to make the calendars for the posse Christmas gifts. Now I just have to DO it---and ship them. And we all KNOW how good I am about that. (BLUSH).

Anyway, I've been in some pain (chronic crap that comes and goes). It and the OTC stuff I take to handle the worst of it has been giving me very VERY dark dreams and ideas. Probably not usable (then again, you never know), but definitely too dark and overtly sexual for the YA I'm working on writing right now. I'll get past it, but it certainly is awkward.

ANYWAY, hope you are all well and happy. I've got a ton to do today, so I can't stay and ramble. But enjoy your holidays if I don't get back to you as soon as I'd like.


Cie

Monday Morning Trivia

All right, as long as I'm moving forward and in honor of my previous blog this morning.

For one point -- name the Bill Murray movie in which the primary plot device is a time loop.

For a bonus point -- name 2 other people who acted in that movie.

Answers to catadamsfans@gmail.com . And folks, remember, we're almost to the end of the year and the end of the contest.

Best always.

Cie

Where Do You Get Your Ideas?

It's a classic question. It is also completely impossible to answer without sounding snarky. I mean, what do you say? I could act like mom's did in the old days when they didn't want to talk about sex and say "they come from the cabbage patch" or "the stork delivers them" but that's not really true. I think. Not for me anyway.

For example, last night I had an idea. Out of the blue apparently (no stork seen). A woman wakes up in a cabin in the middle of nowhere in front of a roaring fire. Looking around she sees the entire place is filled (and I do mean filled) with stuff about time travel. Everything has to do with time travel, from the movies on disc (Time After Time, The Time Traveller's Wife, Back to the Future I, II, and III, etc.), to the books filling the shelves (A Wrinkle in Time, The Butterfly Effect, etc.).

Now, the questions start. Is she an angel? An amnesia victim? A time traveller sent back to stop our obsessive-compulsive cabin owner from actually building a time machine?

Next snapshot in my head. Our girl is now in the cabin with 3 other people. (Don't know when or how they got there. This came in the a.m., post dream). She is trying to explain the concepts of time in a method our three collaborators (Professor, one male and one female student) is going to understand.

(Now this goes into a lecture that is liable to bore the pants off of you if you're not careful, so tighten your belt, or go to a location where pantslessness will not cause you trouble such as job loss or arrest for indecent exposure---you've been warned).

"You're thinking time is linear. It is, and it isn't. The problem is the human brain is wired to think in three dimensions. You need at least five to really grasp the concept." She takes a balloon out of her pocket and blows it up, or grabs an orange, and grabs a magic marker. "First, it's spherical." She presses the pen to the surface and marks a spot. Nodding to the male student. "This is you. You've just graduated high school. You have to make a choice. Do you" she moves the pen a short distance to make a line "go directly to college and onward?" She goes back to the first spot, and moves the pen in a different direction "OR do you skip a year, go with your girlfriend on a trip of exploration."

"This is your girlfriend." Back to the original spot. "She has a similar choice." The pen follows the trip path, then stops. "Now she has a choice. Does she resist temptation, knowing that if she stays with you, you will be the only man she ever sleeps with. Or does she give in, knowing that if you find out she'll lose you entirely?" The pen goes to his spot. She draws his line away from the trip path over to the college path, leaving the second line behind. (The assumption being that the girl cheated.)

"But it's not that simple. Because the surface isn't flat. There are hills and valleys. Just like you move more slowly climbing up a snowy hill than sliding down on your sled. And then there's emotion. Emotion is energy. Concentrated together, it can be like the wind at your back, or in your face. And it affects everything.

"She looks around to see if they're following. They are . . . sort of. Not like they believe her, but they're trying, so she continues. "There's a motivational speaker who says that emotions are nothing more than electrical storms in the brain. Electricity is energy . . . it's power. Concentrated in enough strength it can be deadly."

She grabs one end of the baloon, pulling it tight so that the rubber is thicker on one end than another. "Have you ever had a day at work that seemed to drag on forever? It just wouldn't end." They nod. "Part of that is your emotion. You're bored. You're tired. You stayed up drinking the night before so you're a little hungover. But part of it isn't. Part of it is that in Brazil there are 100,000 screaming fans wound up to fever pitch as the soccer game goes into overtime, and another 100,000 are in Europe in 2002 waiting for the first concert of the reunion tour of one of the greatest bands of all time; and an entire country in 1964 is mourning a president who was shot down in the prime of his life. All that emotional energy is pulling time, affecting it in different ways, distoring how it is perceived."

She sighs. They're not getting it. Which means it's pointless trying to explain how time works differently in space. Not in a space craft --- with its artificial atmosphere and human imposed emotional sequence. But in space itself. Where light and sound exist on their own with little input from humans or other sentient species.

"So you're saying time travel is possible?" The girl asks.

"I'm saying trying it is stupid. A really, REALLY bad idea." She sets down the balloon and walks into the kitchen area. They follow. "There's too much happening. Too many ways it can go wrong. Just here, in this remote spot, there is us, having this conversation. There is a prospector, on his way to California for the gold rush. There is a cave man being killed by a bear. MAYBE you could get lucky." She pulls a glass from the shelf and fills it close to the rim with water before setting it on the counter. She then fills her cupped hand with water and dumps it into the glass. The water level rises to the very rim. "And nothing bad happens. Then again . . ." she fills her cupped hand again, and dumps it into the glass, which overflows onto the counter, making a mess, "maybe not." She turns to them. "One person can make a difference sometimes. She begins quoting Martin Luther King . . . 'I have a dream,'" she pauses, then starts singing, 'Don't cry for me Argentina, the truth is I never left you."

****************************

Okay, that's where it left off. Now where did it come from? Haven't a clue. I had been sitting in front of the fire eating dinner, so maybe the fire is from that. But the whole space-time continuum and emotion as energy distorting things? I dunno. I mean it. WTH?

I have an odd mind. I'll admit that. But this stuff is a bit out there for me. Probably too dry to use for a story too. But it was there, in my head. And it played out like a movie. And I do find it a bit interesting.

Where do I get my ideas? I dunno. Sometimes something inspires me. A lot of times they spring into my head fully formed, or make themselves known through dreams. Sometimes they're useful. Sometimes they're not. But I try to let them have their way, because even if they're not useful they deserve time and attention.

Besides, just because something isn't workable now doesn't mean it won't be later on, in a different context.

Update.

Hello All

Hi Guys!

Sorry I've been a bit scarce. Life has intervened. I'm okay. A little bummed, but okay. I will probably be dealing with the general hoo ha of paperwork, the holidays and such for a couple more days. But I will return as soon as life lets me. Less than a week for sure.

Thanks for caring.

Cie

Would you like to see?

Okay, I'm depressed. Lots of reasons, some of them biology. Others, just not having made progress or having backslid on pretty much every one of my goals. But I'm human. I do that occasionally. Never give up. Never, ever, ever give up.

ANYWAY, I didn't get the contest entry sent in time. Would you guys like me to post it as part of the first Double Feature?


Cie