Which Way Did the Week Go?

Seriously.

I was sorta prepared to lose an hour last night but an entire week?!

Thus there really isn’t anything to report for ROW80 this week. I can’t remember how many days I hit Morning Pages. I didn’t even crack open the Deep EDITS lesson for this week. I certainly failed to hit blogs this week.

Sigh.

On the other hand, I am once again hunting for a job. Something that fits my strengths better. Something that pays better. Something with LIVEABLE hours. I did have one interview this week and have another scheduled for Monday. It’s a huge mental resource suck. Crossing fingers it will be over sooner rather than later.

Beastie Girl had her first guest post — the ham.

Hope y’all had a more productive week!

Mum is Letting Me Out to Play

Last week, Ms. Jackie asked Mum if she would take part in Paws With a Cause.

Mum said, “Yes.”

Then she handed the laptop to me.

My paws and those little keys…

But I did it! And tomorrow, March 7th, I’ll be over at Housewife Blues and Chihuahua Stories.

I hope you’ll stop by. I’m kinda nervous.

On the 9th Day of Christmas…

I’m over at Maria Zannini’s today sharing a favorite holiday recipe as part of this year’s DIY Christmas.

Psst…be sure to check out all 12 days, there are giveaways

Hope to see you there!

Another Rainy Day Activity

I’m over at Maria Zannini’s Back to Basics blog today with the second in a short series of fun non-techie, wee beastie approved, family activities. Hope to see you there!

The “I’m Bored” Dilemma

The words every parent dreads hearing!

Find out how I answer the call…

by following me over to Maria Zannini’s Back to Basics blog. Today is the first in a short series of fun non-techie, wee beastie approved, family activities. Hope to see you there!

Let me ‘splain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

I completely forgot to post last week. I’d love to blame it on having a blast with the family. Sure, that was part of it. I had planned to dazzle y’all with some vacation highlights. Even preloaded all the links.

Of course, it was vacation and NOTHING went as planned, LOL

We lost our upstairs A/C, during 115 days…yeah, not pretty. That Man came down with some kind of stomach thing that laid him low for almost three days. And due to the heat, some of the activities we WANTED to do just weren’t gonna happen.

The biggest shock?

I, known paparazzi mum, took not a single picture!

source

The goal for the week had been to hit some of the things locally we’ve been meaning to since moving here back in 2007. And we did get to Springs Preserve as a part of that. Fabulous. And we in no way saw everything there was to see. Definitely on the must return list.



We also watched a fair amount of movies. Places with A/C were kinda a priority

source

Plus we did some usual summer activities like going to the Outdoor Picture Show. We pack a picnic dinner, stake out our spot on the grass (a rather rare commodity here, LOL), eat and enjoy the carousel while we wait for it to get dark enough to watch the movie.

Mostly…I plum lost track of time. That’s my story for not posting last Sunday and I’m stickin’ to it

Then, this week, what I’ve been itching to have happen, happened.

I’d been importing a story into Scrivener as part of a general Word clean up. These characters never really left me, murmuring in the background, but I KNEW the story needed major work. Possibly an entire rewrite. So, I hadn’t looked at it since I finished it during Joely’s MayNaNo thing two years ago. Actually, that was part of the original Coyote Con. Anyway, a character threw me for a loop. Loved the extra tension it would add to the story but didn’t feel I was at the point to pull it off then. Perhaps I’m still not, but I’ve been sucked back into the story, possibly the first of three stories.

I’ve been so obsessed, I’ve kinda dropped off the face of the Internet. I apologize for not getting around to your blogs or waving at you from Twitter or Facebook. I’m sure it’ll be impossible to catch up on everything y’all have been up to but I will try to at least stop by

Speaking of blogs, I will be over at Maria’s Back to Basics blog on Wednesday. Hope to see you there!

Title Quote: Inigo Montoya from The Princess Bride

Character Surprises with Joely Sue Burkhart

I met Joely Sue Burkhart through one of Lynn Viehl’s Left Behind and Loving It ‘online conferences’ and began stalking reading everything she wrote. Over the years we became friends: cheering, crying, supporting, and giving the occasional kick in the arse to each other. It is with extreme pleasure I welcome Joely here today.

Take it away Joely!

~ * ~

Surprises

It never matters how much plotting I do — the characters still manage to surprise me before I hit “the end.” When I started planning and writing Yours to Take, all I really knew up front was that Vicki wanted a menage. I didn’t know who the men were or what brought them together at first. So here are a few surprises that she sprung on me as I started writing…

1. Vicki’s a switch. I suspected, given her family history (Victor, Conn, and Mama Connagher are all dominants) that she’d be dominant too. But until Elias walked in, I didn’t know that she’d also play a more submissive role. Granted, she makes him work for it…
2. Jesse’s so submissive he’s scary. He’s willing to do absolutely anything Vicki tells him, which petrifies her (and me!).
3. But Jesse’s also got a very strong core. I knew he was a survivor and he’s certainly seen a lot in his life, but it surprised me when he stood up to Rodgers and even Elias when it came to Vicki’s welfare. Jesse may be putty in Vicki’s hands, but if she’s ever threatened or upset, he’s a strong shoulder for her to lean on.
4. Elias can be an alphahole. I love alpha men, don’t get me wrong, but he can be a jerk too. His pride is a problem that gets in the way of him reconciling with Vicki after they separated three months before. He recognizes when he’s being a jerk, but he’s not a warm and fuzzy sort of guy. He’s certainly not going to quote poetry like Conn! Luckily Vicki doesn’t take any of Elias’s shit. She’s more than strong enough to smack him down when he’s being too arrogant.
5. Vicki’s favorite pastime (other than designing her own line or loving her men)… zombie movies. I love zombie stories, don’t get me wrong, but I haven’t seen too many zombie movies that I could watch more than once. She loves them all, from the old black and white Night of the Living Dead
   to Zombieland.

If you’re a writer, what’s the biggest shocker your characters have pulled on you?

Readers, what has surprised you in a favorite book?

One commenter will win a free eCopy of Yours to Take: The Connaghers, Book 3!

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All fire and gunpowder need is a stray spark…

The day one of her old clients gunned down a cop, former defense attorney Vicki Connagher lost everything—her passion for justice, and her lover, Detective Elias Reyes. The dead cop’s partner.

Even though she’s following her dream to start her own fashion line, it’s tough with heartache as her only companion. Until she brings Jesse, a wandering street artist, in from a freak Texas snowstorm. His submissive flirting brings out dominant tendencies she never knew she possessed, yet she hesitates to let him take her as far and as hard as she wants to go.

Some homeless junkie in Vicki’s house? Not on Elias’s watch. Pride kept him away, but as long as Jesse is staying in Vicki’s downstairs shop, he’s staying with Vicki. On the couch, but it’s a start.

As the days go by, the three work out an uneasy alliance. But Vicki’s joy at having Elias back in her life is tempered with a growing desire to have it all. Elias in her bed, and Jesse under her command. The only question remaining is if her tough alpha cop is willing to embrace all that she is…

Bio: Joely always has her nose buried in a book, especially one with mythology, fairy tales, and romance. You can find her on her website, Twitter, and Facebook. Be sure to check out her free reads!

~ * ~

Congrats Natalie Hartford you are the winner

of the Yours to Take giveaway!

Do Robots Have Souls? with Terry Persun

I met Terry through a Goodreads group and had the honor of working with him on a project. It’s with great pleasure I welcome Terry Persun as today’s guest blogger.

Take it away Terry.

~ * ~

Do Robots Have Souls?

For anyone who has read The Soul of A New Machine by Tracy Kidder, I’m not talking about soul in that way. I mean a soul like what we assume humans have. If humans have a soul at all, which hasn’t really been proven scientifically. So, we quickly get into some pretty muddy water with this question.

Let’s say that you believe that only humans have a soul. That animals and plants and insects and fish all live a soulless life. If that’s what you believe, then we’re done with this question. But, if you can assume that anything that is alive has a soul, then we may be getting somewhere. Now we only have to decide whether or not a robot (or other machine) is alive.

Don’t use the old “pull the plug and it stops” excuse here. Bears hibernate for months, some fish can be frozen over the winter and be thawed and then live again. If robots had batteries, they could slow their systems (or sleep, as my computer does if I leave it alone for a long time) and “wake up” when needed again. Life can be measured in a lot of different ways, but truth be told, it’s only alive or dead dependent on what rules we place on the explanation. Plus, solar energy could keep robots working, or we could devise a protein generator similar to our own human one.

If I were to say that anything that can perform the physical act of movement is alive, then a robot may be alive and a tree may not be. It’s all in how things are defined. So, I’m going to say that everything—rocks, bugs, fish, the kitchen table—has a soul. There, according to this definition, a robot has a soul. I may need to redefine what a soul is, but that’s just another way I choose to look at it.

It’s like a lot of the questions we ask ourselves. We get to change the answer based on our definitions. Politicians are good at this sort of thing. “If they’re not with us, they are against us.” Yeah, no room for a neutral party there. And no room for any gradation. It’s all digital: yes or no. I look at how we classify animals and think that we could have adjusted our classifications any number of ways. Animals that walk on two legs and animals that walk on four…or six, or eight.

We could say that Robots that are used for human interactions have souls and those that are merely used to carry out a particular function do not have souls. Maybe the robot as a whole has a soul, but each component has no soul. So, I might have a soul, but if my arm is cut off, it doesn’t have a soul separately. Whole things have souls, but not parts of things. And if that’s true, then a tree might have a soul, but the branches we trim from it don’t, and the leaves that fall don’t have souls either.

If I were to answer this question, though, based on my own beliefs, I’d say that everything has a soul in some way or another. I like to think that everything folds back into the Earth and is changed. Like scientists believe about energy: it can be changed, but it is always present.

Fun things to think about, for sure, but I doubt we’ll ever have a true answer that can be proven.

What do you think? Do robots have souls?

~ * ~

In Newcity, everyone is content. Bad feelings are not allowed, because your monitoring chip will alert the police to bring you in for treatment. Getting better is mandatory. Unchecked emotions made the world outside Newcity dangerous, unruly, and violent. At least that’s the official story in Newcity. Keith knows something is wrong. Strange visions lead him to become one of the few who escapes Newcity. He finds freedom and companionship outside, but pressure building to revolt against the city’s insidious regime of social control. Leadership is thrust upon him, with only his visions for guidance, only a small band of friends for support—and the fates of both Newcity and the outside world at stake. Cathedral of Dreams is a compelling tale of a dystopian future and personal heroism.

An archetypal American story of self-discovery, set against the turmoil of post – Civil War America, Sweet Song tells the story of the mixed race son of a white landowner and a black house servant. Leon, raised black but an outcast from both cultures, finds himself suddenly on his own — and passing for white. Wrestling with a divided heritage in a world where honesty, even with friends, might prove fatal, he falls in with dispossessed thieves, mill workers, saloon keepers, musicians, businessmen, thugs, freedom loving idealists and malevolent racists — a vivid panorama from America’s past. This tender, raw, provocative novel speaks from the heart about where we’ve come from and who we are.

Bio: Terry Persun is a full-time writer, with two published poetry collections: Every Leaf and Barn Tarot. His published works also include six novels through small, independent presses.

Persun’s latest novel, Cathedral of Dreams is a finalist for the ForeWord magazine Book of the Year Award. His literary novel, Sweet Song won a Silver IPPY Award this year.

You can find Terry on his website, Facebook, and Twitter.

Round of Words in 80 Days — Wrap-up

Crap. Where did the time go?

It’s almost Christmas — I’m not ready — and it’s the end of the fourth round of ROW80 for 2011. With Christmas falling on Sunday, there won’t be a Sunday Summary this week, so we’ll call this my final check in for 2011.

For a recap of my goals, go HERE.

1. Write 250 words per day, 5 days a week, on fantasy piece. — Mostly a success, with NaNoWriMo I managed to get about 15K shy of finished with the first draft. However, there has been some major slackage in December that not even joining Jenny Hansen’s NaNoSlackMo could salvage.
2. Blog twice a week, not counting ROW80 updates. — Definitely a success. I even got in a guest post over on Maria Zannini’s blog (giveaways are open through tomorrow) as part of her DIY Christmas. I had some fantastic visitors here, with Jenna Reynolds talking about tarot, and Piper Bayard and Kristen Lamb here as part of their Bayard/Lamb in 2012 Campaign Tour.
3. Comment on 3 blogs per day. — Mostly a success. Definitely had more hits than misses
4. Update Twitter and Facebook 3 times a week, not counting new blog posts. — I had some great weeks. I had some bad weeks. I even had some epic fail weeks. This will continue to be an area I need to work on in 2012.

I’ll definitely be joining again in 2012. To watch for the details of round one in 2012, go HERE.

I have a regularly scheduled Tarot post for tomorrow, and next Thursday, plus a post scheduled for next Tuesday. Otherwise, I’m kicking back and enjoying the holiday.

I wish you all a very happy holiday with the ones you love!

Bayard/Lamb 2012 — Time for Change

Piper Bayard

Please help me welcome Presidential Candidate Piper Bayard and her “space-saving” Vice-Presidential Running Mate Kristen Lamb to the blog! Their campaign is a breath of fresh air in the political arena. I’m sure you’ll agree that we need this pair in the White House. To read up on their campaign, click over to Bayard/Lamb 2012 Campaign HQ.

Thank you so much Piper and Kristen for stopping by. I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedules and am honored to be able to interview you today.

Kristen Lamb

As a mother, education is extremely important to me. What are your thoughts on the current state of our education system, which more often then not, isn’t preparing students for university and beyond?

This country has forgotten that education is a privilege. We will remind them of that fact with our Assclown Exchange Program. In this program, wannabe thugs who don’t appreciate the opportunity of a free education will be exchanged with children from third world countries who can only dream of getting an education instead of walking five miles for a bucket of water every day.

Does “abstinence only” education help or hurt us?

The act of telling a person “No” is not an education. Education is an exploration of facts, and reproduction is a topic worth exploring. Social agendas and value judgements are not the business of public schools.

We advocate sex education that is an actual education; therefore, along with the mechanics, we believe there should be a Herpes 101 class, followed by Crabs Ain’t Just In the Ocean, Clap if You Love Penicillin, Pregnancy: the Gift that Keeps on Taking, and AIDS is Not a Grant of Assistance.

This intensive course work will culminate in each student being assigned a robotic baby for a month. Said robotic baby will weigh 15 pounds, cry all night, and poop and puke randomly throughout the day. The only way a student will be allowed to attend Prom is if they find a babysitter at $8 – $10 per hour at their own cost, not their parents’, or if they take the pooping, spewing, screaming baby with them. Each robobaby will be fitted with a GPS ankle bracelet so we will know if the it is left alone or tossed out a window, which will constitute an automatic fail for the class.

Is our freedom to consume what we want whenever we want worth the cost (ie environmental, social, economic, etc.)?

We could write an entire dissertation on this so we will simply say that when you dance, you have to pay the piper. No pun intended. However, if you would like to send Piper money . . .

Should we begin colonizing space?

Sure. Let’s start with the space in the square and rectangular states like Wyoming and Nebraska. And we can test our super duper moonwalk gear in the winters of Montana. People in crowded states will get more places to live, and the colonized states will get another electoral college vote. It’s win/win. But be aware that all colonists will be required to contribute to the functioning of society. It isn’t right to go to someone else’s state and act like an assclown.

We would also colonize the space in West Texas in preparation for colonizing the bare rock that is the moon. After all, psychologically speaking, if people can handle a year in the rural area outside of Odessa, they will be fine on the moon.

If they were to make the story of your life into a movie, who should play you?

I would really love that horse from Secretariat to play me. I always wanted to be able to run that fast. And you have to admit. That horse was very convincing as a horse, and it always won its races. ~Piper

I want to be played by James Earl Jones because I always envisioned myself as a large black man with a deep, intimidating voice and not a small white girl from Ft. Worth, Texas. (My husband finds this slightly disturbing.) ~Kristen

I’m from Nevada, where prostitution is legal in the majority of the state, what are your thoughts on legalizing drugs and/or prostitution? Why or why not. (BTW, we also have the first legal male prostitute. We’re an equal opportunity state.)

We would not legalize drugs and prostitution. If we legalize it for everyone, what would Nevada do for income? Besides, it wouldn’t be special any more. It would be like having birthday cake every day.

Should the federal and/or state government have the power to define marriage?

They can’t even define “debt ceiling” or “budget.” Let’s work on the small stuff first.

I recently read this article: Canada’s Polygamy/Polyamory Ruling and would like to hear your thoughts/views on the subject.

We find polygamy quite fascinating. You always see men collecting wives, but you never see women wanting another husband. Funny how that is.

There are, however, women with man harems. They’re called erotica authors. (See Jillian Dodd or Roni Loren for actual man harems.)

My son wants to know, if your presidency tanks, who do you plan to use as your scapegoat?

President Bush, of course. Isn’t he everyone’s scapegoat? If we can’t blame Bush, we’ll just blame global warming or solar flares.

We talk about the tarot here on the blog quite a bit, if you were a tarot card which one would you be? Or which card do you feel represents you best?

I’m not familiar with the cards of a tarot deck, but I would be the one that represents a person who is blessed. ~Piper

I would be The Hangman because I was the dumb schmuck lucky person who agreed to be Piper’s running mate. ~Kristen

We want to thank Raelyn for hosting us here at her blog today. It’s been an honor.

If you would like to book the Foxie with Moxie Pair for a Bayard/Lamb Campaign Blog Tour stop at your site, please contact Piper at piperbayard@yahoo.com. And remember, Bayard/Lamb 2012 – We’re Not Them.

~ * ~

Thanks again Piper Bayard and Kristen Lamb, what a thrill to have you here!

Are you ready to cast your vote for Bayard/Lamb 2012? Do you have any questions for Piper and Kristen?