call of the wild

There's nothing like three days of camping to make one appreciate the finer things in life -mainly refrigerators, air conditioning, hot showers, and flushing toilets.

We made it back from Mt. Charleston a couple hours ago and it feels good. Two nights roughing it in the wilderness, with tents, five kids, and tons of junk food may sound like a dream, but it can get rather exhausting. ;-)

I enjoy camping more than the typical OC grown Cali girl and not only to prevent me from taking certain things like the ones mentioned above for granted, but because I really do like nature. It's humbling. It's beautiful. And it's simple...in a mysteriously complex way. It has the ability to clear my mind and fill it with wonder in one awe-inspiring moment. And it's more real than anything else in the universe.

So as a salute to camping, I've written a list inspired by this most recent experience.

TEN THINGS I LEARNED WHILE CAMPING

1) Bug spray is a scam.

2) Hamburgers and hot dogs are best charred to a crisp.

3) Just because there are flushing toilets, doesn't mean they will.

4) If you want kids to learn to respect and love nature, leave the video games and TV at home.

5) Showers are for sissies.

6) Rain is only bad when your tent has a leak or you have to go to the bathroom.

7) Firewood at a campground works like cigarettes at prison.

8) Smores are worth every negative moment.

9) Cell phones are useless.

10) Reading a book is 10 times better lounging at the top of a sunny, green mountain.

On that note, I finished MacKenzie's Mountain by Linda Howard yesterday. I heard from the die-hard romance afficionados over at RomanticTimes.com that Wolf MacKenzie had won for readers' favorite hero. I had to check it out anyway because Wolf is half Celt and half Comanche; a half-breed similar to the hero in my WIP. It was a great story, a quick read, and very well done. I highly recommend it. It also heavily inspired me to keep moving forward with my current novel. If readers loved Wolf, wait until they get a load of my guy..He he....

grand total: 50160

Quote of the Day: Easy reading is damn hard writing. ~Nathaniel Hawthorne

long weekend

It's been a long and tiring weekend filled with fireworks, charred burgers, and swimming pool incidents. I'm both sad and happy to see it end. We've got the boyfriend's 12 year old here who always seems to be bored. I can't remember the last time I was bored. It must be nice.

I tried to get past 50000 on my word count, but I fell a couple hundred short. It just wasn't going to happen tonight. I'm betting on tomorrow though, when I've got a fresher outlook and more sleep.

I came across this video the other day and it made me laugh. The guy who programs the pizza band has done at least five other songs too. These mechanical characters usually frightened me as a kid, but now they only frighten me a little.



grand total: 49671

Quote of the Day: Don't tell me the moon is shining; show me the glint of light on broken glass. ~Anton Chekhov

i'm in love

For those of you who know me.....you're saying.....in love? What's new?

So when I fall...I fall hard. Sue me. :::sticks tongue out:::

I just finished Stephenie Meyer's Twilight... :::sigh, batting eyelashes up at some unseen shining star:::

Twilight is what all young adult romance should be; sigh inspiring, sweet, fun, humorous, smart, and well-written.

And Stephenie Meyer goes one step further by revolving the story around a stud-muffin vampire!

I had heard all the hype about this novel and still tried to go into it unbiased. Soooo many people raved about it; but I didn't know any of them from Adam, so I told myself not to expect much. I figured I couldn't lose, since the story had gothic elements and vamp love. I actually worried that since it was a young adult novel, it would be more urban fantasy than romance. Oh boy was I wrong.

I gave it a try and finished this 500 page masterpiece in three days! It's no Harry Potter...my former lover, but it's a different genre in my mind. All romance....

It's the story of Bella Swan, a teenager, who in order to give her mother the chance to be happy with her traveling ball player boyfriend decides to go live with her father in a small town in northern Washington. Bella is instantly the talk of the small close-knit town. She makes a few friends, but is curious about the group of pale, model-esque kids that sit together in the cafeteria.

From there she meets Edward Cullens, the youngest and sexiest of the group, and her life will never be the same.

I don't want to give away any more because I'm mean that way :-) Read it. There are three more novels in the series and I plan to get through them. I wanted to get this one read because the movie comes out in December and honestly, if I see the movie first, I hardly ever get into the book.

Twilight is filled with romance, suspense, vampires, action, emotion, humor, and romance...Oh wait, I already said that. Growing up I had fantasies similar to the premise of Twilight and I think many teen girls did, too. Ok, maybe just the geeky ones. Still, give it a try and tell me what you think!

grand total: 48153

Quote of the Day: The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible. ~Vladimir Nabakov