Let The Season Begin

So we're down to the final 24 on American Idol. Yes, I'm an American Idol junkie. And since I'm still ridiculously busy and still suffering from this head cold or allergies or whatever, this is going to be a very short post.

I think my favorite is still Sundance Head.

If you're an Idol junkie - tell me who you like/who you hate.

Draggin' on Tuesday

Today is my mom's birthday so here's wishing her a ........



Mom lurks on the blog, so feel free to throw out a happy b-day of your own. I've recently shown her how to post a comment, so maybe we'll see her here soon. :)

Sorry for the lack of post yesterday, but this week is probably going to be pretty thin. I am frantic on deadline to get UNLUCKY out to my cp's. I am teaching a class this week, so no reprieve there, and to top it all off, my allergies have me feeling most awful - drainage, sniffling, sleeping upright so you can breathe. Like I needed anything else keeping me from writing. (sigh) When it rains, it pours.

So I'll put a question to you again today: When you're stretched beyond capacity, what do you give up in order to keep writing?

Where's Emily Post When You Need Her?

First, a booksigning announcement: I will be at the Barnes & Noble in Tyler, Texas tomorrow, signing RUMBLE from 4:00 pm - 6:00 pm. If you're anywhere near there, please come out and visit me!

So those of you who read regularly probably saw my blog earlier this week thanking medical personel for the job they do after witness a "brought back to life" moment in a local restaurant last Saturday morning. (scroll down if you didn't read the other story, because it's kind of relevant here).

So when the guy fell out on the floor, the doctor rushed over immediately, checked vitals and started performing CPR. He got a pulse quickly, but it was apparent the guy was still unresponsive. That's when I glanced at other tables and realized that everyone was frozen in this weird state. They were clutching coffee cups, or forks (some even with food on them) but not moving. And everyone was looking at each other and it was apparent what they were thinking "Do we continue eating, is that rude, do we wait until he sits up, until the paramedics get here?????"

Then my husband looks over at me and asks "is this like sports and we clap when he gets up - I mean, what's the rule here?"

Hell if I know.

So I'm putting you to work on a Friday. What do you think the etiquette is in a situation like this? And I need you to cover eating all the way to clapping.

See ya Monday!

Under the Skin

I mentioned yesterday that I am in class myself this week. The class is for a certification for HUD properties, basically it will certify that I am knowledgable enough to train affordable and tax credit software. The text is dry - to say the least. After all, it IS government issue. And if you've ever had the pleasure of reading the Uniform Tax Code, this is only slightly better.

So we were covering the issues of people with disabilities - what you can ask, what you can't ask, what accomodations you have to make, etc. and the instructor was trying to make a point about how you can't assume someone has a disability because you can see it because the disabled classification is still the choice of the individual. On the other hand, someone might have a documented disability that isn't visible to the eye. So essentially, you run into a big problem with "assume." Nothing new there, right.

But something was said that tickled me at first then got me to thinking about characterization. The instructor, in making her point about visible disabilities, asked the class "can you tell what my disability is?" There was silence for a moment as we all studied her, trying to figure out what it could possibly be then one student shouted out "you're blonde."

Now, even though I'm a blonde, that's still pretty darn funny. And it got me to thinking about how most of our characterization in our books is stuff that's below the skin. Heck, hair color doesn't usually matter to a plot line but the characters emotions, thoughts, fears, etc. are everything to a story.

Obviously, no lawsuit will be filed and no government agency will slap you on the wrist for questioning your characters about their "disabilities" be it emotional or otherwise. So dig deep - look far, far below the surface and think about your hero and heroine. Who are they today and more importantly, what happened the past 20, 30 40 years to get them to this point. You don't have to write it all in your story, but you darn sure need to know. Hey, your heroine may be as sexy as Angelina Jolie and your hero may be built like a Greek God, but in the end, that shallow character description will never carry the story - a nice romp in the hay, perhaps - but not a book. :)