The Proposal

To a writer, "The Proposal" sounds like it's something about writing. It isn't.

Chelsea, Mallory and I celebrated the end of 5 days and nights of baby-sitting 3 (and later 4) of my grandkids by going to see The Proposal, starring Sandra Bullock (my fave) and Ryan Reynolds. It's been killer at the box office and only slipped to second this week to Transformers, but is still going strong.

As we entered the theater, a man exited and loud enough for us to hear said, "The Proposal. Don't see it. Crummy movie." I laughed. Apparently he had expected a more serious movie. I expected and received exactly what I'd hoped for and more--laughs.

Sandra Bullock plays Margaret Tate, editor extrordinaire and hated by all within the confines of Colden Publishing. She's tough as nails, runs roughshod over everyone, especially her assistant, Andrew Paxton, played by hunky Ryan Reynolds. After quickly firing a fellow editor for not doing what she was able to do, she learns from her big bosses that she's being deported. Her passport had expired when she attended a meeting in a foreign country, and she's a Canadian citizen working in the U.S. No more job.

Using her usual tell-em-what-do attitude, she devises a plan to marry Andrew and keep her job. Andrew isn't pleased, but goes along with what she thinks is a simple scheme by bartering for an editorship.

Cut to panoramic Alaska, where Margaret (no, not Maggie) and Andrew arrive to meet his family (Craig T. Nelson and Mary Steenburgen, parents) and attend "Gammie Annie's" 90th birthday celebration. Betty White does a great job as the wise-cracking grandmother, and the laughs flow like water throughout. We learn there's some tension between Andrew and his father, and there's Andrew's high school sweetheart to add to the mix.

There were only a handful of movie-goers at the 10 p.m. showing, but it was clear everyone enjoyed the movie. My only complaint with this and most romcom (romantic comedies) is that the romance develops suddenly. Hate, hate, despise, then boom! The Proposal did a little better with this than most others. Much better than How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.

This movie is a must for my DVD shelf, added to my Sandra Bullock collection. BTW, for those who might be interested, it appears Sandra has been plumping her lips. ;)

If you're looking for a good romcom, this is it for the summer. And look for another from Sandra this fall, followed by a second movie in November. She's been busy!

As for the guy leaving the theater as we entered? Try Transformers.

Goals Met?

Well, sort of. 2 out of 4 isn't bad, right? It's like this:

I tackled #3 first. Hang the white boards, cork board squares and clipboards so they're readily available and easy to reach. Okay, all but the cork board squares, but the rest are up. In fact, about 1 a.m., there was a crash and clatter. Scared the begeezes out of me until I realized what had caused it. It was my daughter's cat. The one that thinks she's my cat. She's developed this irritating habit of jumping onto the left corner of my desk, getting a drink from Shrimp's fishbowl, charging across the desk to leave cat hair in Spock's fishbowl, bounce onto the scanner and up onto a tall chest of drawers, which she has claimed for sleeping. [Did you know cats sleep 18 hours a day?] Next life I'm coming back as a cat. The crash came from my calendar white board and one clipboard falling onto my scanner. All is well, except for those new grey hairs.

#1 on the list of goals for yesterday? 2 pages on current WIP. I wrote 5 to finish the second scene in chapter 5.

#2 goal on list: Clean off my desk was a washout. So was #4: sort laundry for later. Total zilch.

That was yesterday. Saturday.

Today I worked on a website due soon and enjoyed the quiet while everyone went swimming. Hey, it was cooler inside and I got a lot done, including bringing my blood pressure down to within normal. It hasn't been normal since Tuesday. Not that I've checked it, but with grandkids here 24/7, there's no doubt.

I also wrote the last scene for chapter five (6 pages). I am now a chapter ahead of schedule. [Yes, I make and follow a schedule. This is about goals, remember?] I've written 25% of the 9 chapters needed to finish the book. Deadline? September 15. That's like next week, right?

The desk can wait for tomorrow, as can sorting laundry. So here we go with the new list. [Believe me, there are many more things waiting on the list, but these are the must do's.]

• 3 pages on WIP [that's short for Work In Progress, btw]
• 2 more website samples
• Try not to completely lose my mind. Grandkids will return in...6 hours. Just enough time to get some sleep.

Hope everyone's weekend was productive...and fun!

Goals

Goals are something all writers must have. It requires working on them, deciding which are important, and actually putting them to work.

I'm a goal maker. Too bad I'm not the best at reaching them, but at least I try. Take this morning for example. When my head hit the pillow in the wee hours of this morning, the one thing on my mind was sleeping in. What the heck, it's Saturday.

I woke up at 8 a.m. Fool that I am, I didn't return to bed for a little more sleep. Nooooooo. I got up, sat at the computer and checked email. Five hours later, I'm still here. I played. Checked blogs, Facebook, and online news. Typical morning, but I got sucked in fast today.

It's nearly 1:30 in the afternoon, so it's time to set those goals!

::yawn::

First up: 2 pages on current WIP. I'm several days ahead, so it isn't absolutely necessary, but if I don't get some words on paper, I'll lose the momentum and find myself behind next week. And next week the goal will be 3 pages per day.

Second: Clean off my desk. Endless chore. I could surround myself with walls of shelves and still have piles on my desk. Call me a multi-tasker, but it has its drawbacks. Currently residing on my desk are:

• Notes and charts on current WIP
• Notes I jotted while updating Heather Waters website late into the night. (Go Heather!)
• 2 fish bowls with fish
• Writing how-to books
• A big ceramic M&M candy jar. Empty. Must be refilled SOON
• A tin for bills to be paid. (Oops! missed that yesterday.)
• External harddrive
• small speakers, 'cause the ones on the monitor sound like tin cans
• a bottle of Pepsi, one of the basic food groups
• 2 leftover pill bottles from asthma ordeal
• misc. notepads and sticky notepads
• small Rolodex
• phone
• monitor
• assorted scraps of paper, pencils, pens, hair ties, cup with rings, 3 tall candles in glass pillers, hairbrush from my purse, video of kids' Tarzan movie (where did that come from?), bits for cordless screwdriver, inhalers, music CDs

'Nuff said? I thought so.

Third on the list: Hang the white boards, cork board squares and clipboards so they're readily available and easy to reach. (See? I'm thinking! A place for all those papers!)

Goal four: Take a nap. Okay, scratch that. I'll go to bed earlier tonight. (Yeah, right.) So let's add sort laundry for later. Which raises the question of whether the laundry will actually get done in this lifetime. Probably outcome? Uh, no.

And that's just one room!

Check back later...or tomorrow for an update...if I'm not sleeping in.

Cleaning

No, not CLEANNG cleaning. Not picking up the living room, washing the dishes, scrubbing the floors or mopping up messes with the latest in paper products. No, this is thinking cleaning, as in thinking about what to dump from my inbox.

Yes, I was mad/insane when I decided I should get news updates from the local newspaper, but once in a while, it's nice to know what's going on in the world out there. Not usually cheerful, but good to know, just the same. It's nice, too, when I get a notice from Wordpress telling me that someone has posted a comment on the blog I frequent. No, I won't give a name or directions. It's part of my private life. Not that I have anything to be ashamed of, but I don't often mention writing there, so I won't discuss the blog here. Fair enough? But I like knowing when there's a discussion going on that I'm interested in. Unfortunately, at some time during the day, all topics will be interesting to me, even if it isn't until 4 a.m. Don't ask.

Then there are the notices from Facebook that someone is posting, although not necessarily to me, but to...the world? I don't have all this figured out yet, but it's proving to be two things: The first being that it's a lot more fun than I'd expected. I dragged my feet about getting involved, dragged them even slower about requesting friends, and now can't seem to stop doing it all. The second is how much time it consumes. Okay, not hours or anything, and I've found it to be a great wake-up tool. Somebody during the night or before I drag myself from bed has said something that sets me off. I'll comment without much thought. And maybe that's the best thing. Nothing to filter my brain spasm of words. Sometimes I read the notice in email and don't respond, sometimes I wait, and sometimes the perfect comment springs to my fingertips and must be conveyed immediately.

Now I sit and look at the number of emails in my inbox, currently at 609. No, make that 610. Another FB notice just came in. I can get that number down, but it's such a hassle and time consuming, too, to go through it all and try to decide whether it's something that should be kept (some are) or should be tossed (many are). Invariably there will be one or two that fail my decision making process, whatever that is. Gut feeling works best. Hey, if the former Prez can make major decisions (like war) by following his gut, who's to deny me the same when it comes to trashing email?

So before I bury myself in Windows Mail, pitching and throwing the riff-raff from my inbox and after I've finished 4 1/2 page of writing this afternoon (YAY ME), I'll wish for a nap (not likely) with the assurance that I have only so much time in which to get it all done. Mom dutes will be calling in an hour.

Stay tuned for more rambling... It's sure to come, like it or not.

Fun, Fun, Fun

Yeah, an old Beach Boys song title for a first post. Good song! Great group!

But FUN is what I'm planning to have. Life is taken too seriously. I'm bored, bored, bored with the way days go on here, with no chance for fun. What to do? Make it!

This is not a spot to whine, but truth will be told. Not to the point of being bad, but for anyone who thinks life on the published side of the fence is better, there'll be some straight talk. And there'll be laughs. Oh, lots of laughs! I'm hoping visitors, friends, or just the curious will find a laugh or two, too.

And just so everyone knows, "mad" does not mean "angry". It used to, but now it simply means "insane", because sometimes that's what life is.

Pull up a chair, escape the summer sun, and grab your favorite cold drink, and let's do it!

Oh, and by the way, PINK is not my favorite color. Maybe someday something different? Using a template for now was easiest. Who has time to spend hours on a new creation?

May You Be In Peace, Michael

Summertime and the Livin' is...HOT

The official start of summer was yesterday, celebrated by many as Summer Solstice. While we've been dealing with a lot of rain lately in these parts, the forecast shows nothing but 98 and 99 degree days. They don't like to say 100 unless they're sure of it. Guess what? I'm sure of it! Add some sticky humidity and the heat index soars, making moving around at all impossible.

So I'm staying inside today, expect for those brief interruptions when the grandkids escape down the street to play in a small pool at a neighbor's...without supervision. Nana's BP is starting to soar with the heat index. Naps sound good to me. Wish I could take one!

What's on the agenda? Fininishing up one website and putting some final touches on samples for another. After that, I'll be digging into a couple of much-loved characters who never got the story they deserved.

Have a wonderful second day of summer and hope your weather is great.

Take advantage of the new moon today and start something new!

So Much To Do, So Little Time

I can't believe it's been over a month since I posted, but it has. I really have been busy since then and keep getting myself into new projects faster than I can say NO.

Since the last time, school has let out for the summer, meaning all 4 grandkids are here ALL DAY. That in itself takes up a lot of time, although they aren't always bad and the 2 youngest manage to take a nap at some point during the day, giving us all a little quiet time. But it seems it's never enough to get it all done.

My son-in-law is home from his 4-month long deployment in the Middle East. It's always good to have him back. Nice to have a man's POV on things. Okay, even when I don't agree. ;) I know he's glad to be home, too, and has already done some fishing, along with mowing the lawn. Not his favorite chore, by the way.

I'm finally almost back to normal after a three-week bout with asthma, but I'm not ready to run a marathon yet. Not that I ever planned to. A nice walk would be nice, but, again, when is there time? I do promise to never mow again! Not being able to breathe is NOT fun, and all for a yard where small children don't become lost.

So what else has been keeping me busy? I've added an excerpt from The Rodeo Rider to my website, along with the fantastic back cover blurb! It truly tells the essence of the story, and I love it! My author copies have arrived, so I'm trying to decide whether to throw a contest here on the website for some books and maybe some extras. That may depend on time, too.

If you've ever had the slightest desire to try your hand at writing, my local writers' group has a terrific blog dedicated to how to write a romance novel. Stop in and visit us at Bits & Bytes: Romance...the Writer's Way. We're all having a blast talking shop and love to share!

This past week I've been at eHarlequin.com, leading a discussion in the Conflict Crisis Center on the Write Stuff board on, you guessed it, Conflict. My week of kicking off the new board is officially over today, but don't be shy about stopping in to say hello! I plan to hang around for as long as I can, hoping to pick up ideas from other authors. We're all always learning.

I'm including a special invitation to visit my little spot on Facebook. I dragged my feet as long as I could about joiing and finally capitulated, adding my name and several friends, including writing friends, high school friends, newer friends, and even a few cousins! If only I had that little extra time to play with the applications and quizzes. Maybe later this summer? Who knows what I might discover!

And last, but not least, we have a puppy. Her name is Willow, and she is very sweet. A little too friendly for the grandkids yet, but she's calming down a little more every day and loves to spend all day outside. As long as she doesn't kick up my asthma, we'll keep her. ;) Isn't she a cutie?

So I hope to see you soon and "be your friend" on Facebook. I'll drop in here again as time allows...if it does. Until then, have a wonderful summer!