February 17, 2008

Oops, I think this is the longest I've gone without posting. I have to be better about that. It's been a quiet 6 weeks, though. Just writing, reading, and relishing in all the free time produced by the Writer's Strike. I'm "getting caught up" on my online movie queue, too. And by "getting caught up" I mean we're getting close to movies produced in 2007. I have read 9 books so far this year. Reading is fun.

January 1, 2008

Happy New Year! I've watched the parade three times now (our local station broadcasts it all day on a continuous loop) and taken down the holiday decorations, which means we've officially entered a new year. Aside from taxes and work and writing, oh my, not much else changes. 2007 was a good year for me, but I'm looking forward to an even better 2008!

December 5, 2007

Oops, a month has gone by already! Isn't December supposed to be the month that flies by? Well, November was pretty harried for me, too. Thanksgiving involves an 8-hour drive, each way, so that week is always pretty much blown, and then I was writing the rest of the time.

And now for the part where I brag: It's December 5 and I've already decorated my apartment (they're not what one would call extravagant), and finished 2/3s of my shopping. With luck, I'll be totally done by Sunday. That will be a new personal best for me.

November 3, 2007

I thought about doing NaNoWriMo for the first time, but once again the timing isn't right. I am writing enough that I will probably exceed the 50K words mark this month, though.

I've just taken down my Halloween decorations and today saw that Christmas decorations are already going up at the grocery store. I refuse to decorate my apartment until December 1, though. We have to draw the line somewhere!

October 15, 2007

The re-outlining continues. The story is really opening up. I should be revising by next week. I've managed to whittle my TV schedule down to just 5 shows, and one of them ends in a couple weeks (Weeds.) If this WGA writer's strike does happen, I may soon find myself with even fewer shows to watch! Not that I'm hoping for that, I have friends in the industry. I'm also still reading up a storm. Most of it has been non-fiction recently, but my fiction pile has still shrunk a week bit. Not as much as I'd like, but a bit. There's just not enough time in a day. Oh, what I wouldn't give for a Los Angeles with a decent transit system so I could read on my commute! I love this city, I really do, but I really wish they'd been more forward-thinking when they let the lobbyists and car manufacturers unravel the train system in favor of freeways. It would have been such a lovely, efficient, effective system. Sigh.

October 1, 2007

I'm slowly but surely working through the TBR pile. My TV schedule is very manageable, especially since several shows I like don't start until January! It actually feels a little odd to watch so little TV. But it feels nice to be doing so much reading. It also feels great to be starting a new project. Actually, it's an old project I'm reviving. It never got past the first draft, and then I forgot about it. But I love it and it has huge potential, so this weekend the re-outlining process began. It feels great to be writing something new.

September 16, 2007

The summer is finally at an end. Last night was the Hollywood Bowl finale and it was definitely a great way to end the summer (well, that and all the wine I enjoyed.) With fall comes more time to write (oddly). My TV schedule is even more severely cut back this year, not only because I want more time to write, but also because I've grown tired of several shows and no longer feel compelled to watch them. I also don't feel compelled to add anything new. If something turns out to be great, I can always get the DVDs later.

Two weeks ago as part of my purging, I reviewed my bookcases and removed a few I either didn't like or would never read. Unfortunately, that also added several books to my already steep TBR pile. Two weeks later, I've already trimmed it down by four books - which means I read four books. The downside is that I have three more books coming from the library this week. Oops.

September 1, 2007

I'm taking a brief break from writing while I rest my mind and read, read, read. I'm also purging my apartment of all my junk. It feels so refreshing to be getting rid of stuff I don't need anymore. The cats are tad freaked out. My black cat seemed confused by the giant pile of stuff to be shredded that was blocking his path to the open closet (the forbidden land). DH's grey cat can't quite settle between perching happily on paper and being freaked by all the activity. DH is thrilled that I'm tossing everything. Now if only I could convince him to part with his college textbooks and Bar review CDs. He's been a lawyer for two years, I don't think they're going to come back and say he failed after all.

August 22, 2007

And now I'm back from another trip! DH and I drove up to Tahoe for our anniversary on a timeshare tour getaway. It was his first trip and he loved it. The timeshare was actually nice, too, but we didn't buy it. We're just not there yet, and frankly, I don't know if we're timeshare people. We're definitely Tahoe people. I won $170 on a penny machine at the Harvey's casino! How's that for celebrating? Unfortunately, all that money went into car repairs. DH's car broke down at a rest stop on the way and we had to get a rental car, then he had to drive back up to the shop the following week to return it and pick up his own car. It worked out for the best, though. He drives a stick, I don't. If we'd had his car, he wouldn't have had the opportunity to spend the entire drive around the lake (72 miles) looking out the window.

I've also been reading a lot. I love reading! I love having time to read! Some of the books I've enjoyed are craft books, which I like to read while gearing up for a new project. Gets the old noggin' going again you might say.

August 1, 2007

New York was a lot of fun. My husband and I really enjoyed getting to spend some time exploring the city together. I also had breakfast with my agent, which involved a subway ride out to Brooklyn and walking around a cute little neighborhood. My sister's wedding was the highlight of the trip, but we also went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, visited the Egyptian temple at the Met, and went to the Museum of Sex. Now that was a museum.

I was also offered a new non-fiction, work-for-hire book project out of the blue by a London publisher. This would be a Selene Silverwind book. It sounded like a lot of fun, so I jumped at the chance. I'll know around the end of the year whether or not it's a go. Send some positive thoughts my way!

July 17, 2007

Once again it's July and once again I'm exhausted. Most of last week was spent at the RWA National conference where my friend Nadine Dajani signed her first book, Fashionably Late. I highly recommend it, and not just because I've been reading it since it's early drafts. I also enjoyed a wonderful agency lunch with my agent and several other agency clients, the Chick Lit party, and seeing friends I only get to see once a year. I didn't enjoy the stunning lack of sleep. I always forget how little I sleep at conference. And now I get to fly to New York this week for a wedding and a meeting with my agent.

My cat has turned 1. He's a full-grown cat now, but still full of kitten spunk. He has a kitten voice, too, so it doesn't seem like he's full-grown. His twelve pound weight is a pretty good indicator though.

July 1, 2007

I'm stunned to see that I haven't posted in two months. I think I just got buried in writing, plotting, and reading that I forgot my website. I won't let that happen again! I did create a new truffle recipe this month, though. They were lemon truffles. I used lemon extract, lemon juice, and I might add some lemon zest next time to give them a bit more punch.

July means the RWA National Conference. I'm going, of course. Usually I try to have a manuscript done in time for conference, but the timing is off, so it won't be ready. I'm also not pitching this year, because of the timing. I will finally meet my agent in person though, and that's exciting.

May 4, 2007

Wicked! My parents are in town and last night we went to see Wicked at the Pantages theatre. Now I've been a fan of the book for over a decade. The musical was different from the book, but still wonderful.

April 15, 2007

Great news! I'm almost up to 2006 in my Blockbuster movie queue. Yes, I realize how truly pathetic that is, but that's what happens when you get married and your DH finishes law school and takes the Bar that same year. And the I was in grad school, so no movies. So now I'm 136 movies behind. I fear I'll never catch up, because it's not like I've stopped adding movies to the list.

But, summer is coming, which means more time for movies. And, I'm pretty sure some more TV shows will be falling off my Fall viewing schedule. Except, I have to add Heroes to our movie queue, so there's 22 hours of the summer gone right there.

Sigh, I can get the Hollywood out of my job, but you can't get it out of my mindset!

April 6, 2007

Oops, just realized I didn't update my website when I sat down last Sunday to do it. So I'm updating now.

Nothing else to report, except that it's been miserable these last two weeks in Los Angeles. June gloom seems to have arrived two months early. On the plus side, that means I have more time to lose weight before I have to buy new summer work clothes.

Oh, and I'm successfully growing something: catnip. Before you get excited, I got it from a friend who is definitely a green Witch. The plants she grows always thrive. I can take no credit.

March 18, 2007

The month was quiet - just working and plotting and being frustrated that the room block at the RWA National conference is already sold out and it's only early March! How can an entire hotel be sold out by mid-March? That's just absurd.

Speaking of absurd, my friend edited the new movie TMNT and yesterday morning he attended the premiere at the Chinese Theatre in Hollywood. Yesterday afternoon the war protest marched from Hollywood and Vine to the Chinese Theatre. A movie premiere and a war protest all in one day. Only in Hollywood. (BTW, if you see news coverage of a guy proposing at the premiere, that's my friend!)

March 1, 2007

Pantheacon was a blast, but exhausting as usual. We had fewer parties to hit than usual, but we still had a lot of things to do. DH is a very popular person at these things. I took a great workshop on being proud of my yoni. It was very empowering. Not that I wasn't proud of my yoni, but getting to glue fabric together to make an abstract picture of it was oodles of fun. Let's see if some of that fun shows in my new MS.