Monkey Madness Monday

He's not a real monkey, but I love sock monkeys too. 

I know, I know, I didn't blog Friday and you missed me terribly.  Sorry.  After almost a week of traveling for the day job, I suddenly had to prepare a visual presentation of what I learned for our firm retreat which was Thursday and Friday.

So Tuesday and Wednesday I hurriedly prepared outlines and a Powerpoint presentation, then first thing Thursday morning we were off to Leavenworth.  The quaint German town here in Washington, not the prison.

Busy weekend and  now here I am.  Independence day has mostly been my least favorite holiday.  People eat and drink to oblivion, it's normally crappy weather here in the PNW (today is beautiful though, hell must have frozen over).  And then those drunk people light off fireworks.  Whoever thought THAT was a good idea should have been bitch slapped.

While I was married (did I mention my divorce finally went through?) we'd go to the ocean and light our fireworks on July 5th when the beach looked like a garbage dump, but was mostly empty, me not being one for crowds, or obnoxious drunk people, or getting hit in the back of the head with a bottle rocket.

My kids are at the lake with friends and when they get home, they go to their dads.  Today I'm spending it with a "friend" and his kids.  I have no idea what we're doing.  Probably just hanging in the backyard, bbqing, letting the kids swim (I got an above ground pool on the cheap) and catching some fireworks.

I'm wishing you all a happy Independence Day.  Be safe, be sane, and don't blow your arm off.

Thursday Theme Day

Soccer (or futbol if you're anywhere but in America).

From now to January, my family lives, loves, and breathes soccer.  It's only natural it would end up in my novels.

Someone is always a soccer player, be them a main character, or an aside.

In Never Eighteen, Austin was a soccer player until his illness made him too sick to play.

Any other themes seem to land in your novels every time you sit down to write?

Wednesday Whimsy

I realize I didn't blog yesterday.  Day job has me scrambling. I attended an SEO conference over the weekend and now I'm to give a presentation at the firm retreat Thursday.  So I've been creating an outline and trying to get a Power Point presentation done. Arg!!

So here's a quick writing tip.  Stay away from adverbs, especially the "ly" variety.  Using too many adverbs is a rookie move.  Believe me, everyone does it.  Especially after dialogue.  For example, "she said haughtily" or "he paced anxiously".  Instead of using the adverb, use description of how she spoke, or how he paced.

Okay on to today's topic, GPS.  I know, sounds boring.  But when you're in Arizona and have no idea where you're going, it becomes fairly comical at times.

My traveling partner and I were getting so fed up with the GPS and her snobby English accent that we gave her a name to personify her so we could yell and swear at her.  Her name is Astrid.

Astrid, first of all, is outdated.   Her maps did not have updated road  information, and when you're in unfamiliar territory, that is sometimes really annoying.

Secondly, Astrid only gave us about a second to turn or exit.  Kind of hard to exit in three seconds when you're in the left lane of a four lane freeway.

I don't know how many times we heard, "Recalculating."

Worst of all, Astrid took us down a dirt road in the middle of the desert with nothing around but tumbleweeds and coyote and told us we had reached our destination.  Supposedly, this *points down* is where our conference was supposed to be.

Needless to say, we yelled and swore and cursed her the majority of our trip, which is probably why she kept getting us lost.

Astrid, you suck.

That is all, catch you tomorrow.

Monkey Madness Monday

So how cute is this little guy to the left?  I want one!!!!

It's Monday.  I'm in AZ.  Went to an SEO (search engine optimization) conference.  These guys knew what they were talking about.  This will not only help me at my day job, but with my writing life as well.

I leave today to go back to the lovely gray, rainy Pacific Northwest, apparently having missed the two days of heat and sun while gone.

However, I can't wait to get back and test out my new internet skizzizles.

Have a wonderful Monkey Madness Monday everyone.  Enjoy life.

Thursday Theme Day

Theme interests me.  I like to see what kind of things repeat themselves in writer's stories.  I have a new one I hadn't noticed before.  Skateboarding.  I remember in the first book I wrote, I superhero series (some of you may remember it from ABNA) there was a skateboarding character.  Then in Never Eighteen, one of Austin's best friends is a skateboarder. 

Now in Sad, my main character Syd, is an avid skateboarder, along with her friend Zach.

I'm not really sure where the skateboarding theme came from.  I guess I've always been interested in skateboarding.  I like to watch it on TV.  It looks so freeing.  I've always wanted to try it, but I think I may be too uncoordinated (and maybe a little too old now).

Bob Biniak, original Dogtown Z-Boy

And I LOVED Lords of Dogtown.

Plus, when I was younger, I kind of liked the skater boys.  So there's that.

Tell me about one theme that reoccurs in your writing?

Megan