My work schedule is random enough that grabbing dedicated writing time is more miss than hit. I’m sure it will even out eventually. What that adds up to for you is that I haven’t finalized the Meet the Cards post for today.
Instead, here are some posts which rocked my world recently.
Natalie Hartford is a guaranteed laugh most days of the week like this post, on a product we’ve all likely seen advertized, Worlds Collide: Pajamas and Jeans. Every Friday, however, this amazingly dedicated woman puts a personal face on the victims of drunk driving. Check out this great product doing double duty as support for a worthy cause — Recovery Tags.
As part of Coyote Con, this Sunday is my Tarot in Writing panel with the amazing Diana Castle, who you’ve seen me mention here on the blog under her pen name of Jenna Reynolds. The panel starts at 11 AM EASTERN time (AKA New York time). Diane and I hope to see you there
Marcia Richards had a fun post in which she shared her top 10 favorite things starting with the letter L. She had an awesome list. Marcia offered to assign a letter to anyone who wanted to play along.
She gave me “C”
Without further ado, and in no particular order, here are my top 10 favorite things beginning with “C”
Christmas
(Yep, Christmas morning at our house after the boys attacked the presents.)
Celts
(You knew this had to be here somewhere, right?)
Favorite passion: Reading. I’ll read almost anything and love escaping into other worlds.
Giving or Receiving: Giving, definitely.
Favorite pattern: I have to agree with Brinda on this answer…Toile. There’s just something elegant and romantic about it to me.
Favorite day of the week: Sunday.
Favorite flower:Tiger Lily. It was my grandmother’s favorite. According to her it meant ‘wealth and pride’ and she always said we were family wealthy and country proud. I don’t know if she was right but it struck a cord that remains today.
Fabulous Blog Ribbon
Five fabulous writing moments:
Having the amazing Joely Sue Burkhart take me under her wing and meet me D&E every morning.
The spark of a new idea.
When it all comes together, like a jigsaw puzzle not missing any pieces.
When the right word comes without help from the Thesaurus.
Writing “the end” on a first draft.
Five things I love about writing…
Brainstorming a new idea.
Characters who won’t shut up.
Getting in the zone and not being able to stop.
The fabulous writers I’ve meet online!
Learning something new with each draft.
Five things I hate about writing…
Characters who won’t shut up.
Revisions.
Not finding that missing piece to the jigsaw puzzle.
Edits.
Oh, and more edits.
I’m going to take a page out of Brinda’s book and award both the Sunshine Award and the Fabulous Blog Ribbon to five writers. And because she says it so wonderfully…
Why? Because these writers certainly spread sunshine with their words. Their blogs are wonderful, and they are Fabulous Blog Ribbon worthy. They are welcome to indulge us with answers to the questions above if they like. Please go visit these bloggers and see why they are so special!
First off — Happy Canada Day to my family and friends North of the Border!
I’ve spent more time scrappin’ this week than writing but I’m starting to hear whispers, so must have been just what the doctor ordered
The plan is to relax this month. To dabble in whatever strikes my fancy at the time. I do have a stocking to finish cross-stitching for #4 before Christmas. And Nicole is always teasing me with socks to knit. However, I need to get back into the writing. It’s not just a want anymore. So for the month of July my writing goal is to spend 30 minutes each day butt in chair, internet off, hands on keyboard, and the door shut to wee beastie distractions. Crossing fingers those whispers turn in to shouts or demands.
Coyote Con is back!Joely Sue Burkhart snatched up the domain and has set October 26-28 for this year. The main site is still under construction but she’s got forums started and some exciting plans. I’m tentatively set to do a Tarot Panel. Be sure to check out the forums for the other panels and workshops.
So the rest of my July goal is to let go of the pressures I’ve put on myself to be everywhere, play some online games (MIL and I have been challenging each other all week, I’d forgotten how much fun we have doing this), read more, walk Beastie Girl, swim with the wee beasties, and do some of the crafts that often get pushed aside in the writing frenzy. Somewhere in there I hope to find that middle ground I lost along the way during Round 2 of ROW80.
Yesterday, That Man and I ran a gazillion errands and I picked up a new pair of walking shoes. Squee! Beastie Girl and I are out breaking them in as this goes live
And last but not least, a Happy Independence Day America.
…Now, how about the recipe for those TO DIE FOR enchiladas!! YUM!!
And so you shall receive…
Chicken Enchiladas
makes 12 Enchiladas
(double, triple, whatever you need — I think they’re better the next day warmed up for lunch)
5-6 frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1/2 to 1 package of your preferred Taco seasoning
1/8 to 1/4 cup of water
Place the above in crock pot (and yes I put the chicken in frozen) and cook on low for 8-10 hours or high for 4-5 hours. When done, shred with tongs or fork.
12 flour tortillas
1 15oz can of your preferred Enchilada sauce (we prefer a red sauce but mix it up once in awhile and use a green sauce)
1/2 to 1 lb of cheese, shredded (we’re cheese junkies in this house, LOL, I like using a mix of Cheddar and Jack)
Optional ingredients — chili peppers, onions, olives, tomatoes, avocados — when I do these for grown-ups, I like to add some chili peppers to the cooked chicken.
To assemble:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place a tortilla on a dish (or the counter if you’re lazy like me) and place a fair share of the shredded chicken in a line down the center (sprinkle chopped chili peppers, or any of the other extras if you’d like), top with a small amount of cheese. Roll the tortilla into a cylinder and place seam side down in a baking dish (9×13 ish). (Optional: prepare the pan by lightly spraying with an olive oil spray to avoid sticking.) Repeat.
Pour the sauce over the rolled tortillas (I like to leave just a bit of the edges uncovered by the sauce). Top with remaining cheese (again I like to leave a bit of the sauce uncovered by the cheese). Cover loosely with foil and bake until cheese is melted and sauce is heated through maybe 15-20 minutes.
Garnish the top with any combo of the optional ingredients. Serve warm with sour cream, guacamole, etc. along with a nice big leafy salad on the side (I love to pair this dish up with a bag salad called ‘Santa Fe Caesar’ — yummy!).
The Writing: The muse is back but she’s sulking in the corner. Apparently, she didn’t appreciate Gene Lempp’s muse coming after her with a flaming sword. I’m not sure I have much sympathy which is probably not helping her out of the corner. :ducks: Great, now she’s throwing things at me. Ideas, please! Words and sentences. :ducks: Not… What is this? A spit ball?! :sigh:
Earlier this week, Jami Gold posed an interesting question, Does every scene need a goal? It’s a fabulous post I’ve found myself returning to (and following the links) this week.
The Blogging: Check with the initial goal. Check with the updated goal. Almost at four weeks scheduled not counting these posts. I’m cheating a bit with having two guest posts coming up this month but I’ll take it.
Speaking of guest posts, coming up on Tuesday the 22nd, IPPY award winner, Terry Persun will be here posing an interesting question about robots…and souls. Be sure to check back and weigh in on the conversation.
The Social Media: I do believe I can say “check” here. I had non-post related updates on both Twitter and Facebook. Sharing has gone well. And I even had a conversation…gasp.
I’ve been struggling with what to do about Facebook. Currently, I have an “author” profile and “fan” page, plus a personal profile. Earlier this week I followed a link on Facebook to Jane Friedman’s 5 Principles for Using Facebook post. Great info! I plan to sit down, read through her posts on the subject, and perhaps revamp my presence on Facebook.
The Health: Water…5 glasses per day average. Sugar reduction…down to less than a tablespoon on average per day (from all sources). I’m pretty comfortable with that when I look at where I was when I started this process. Caffeine reduction…I managed to cross off 2 drinks all but 2 days this week. Dog walking hit a bit of a road block. Well, damaged knee block. Last weekend, much emotional drama was endured, which I’ve been asked not to go into here. Needless to say, our menagerie grew with the addition of…
Sonic
and…
Neptune and Poseidon
I have no idea what the God of the Sea has to do with mice but #3 was adamant about the names. (I’m also not sure how he can tell them apart!) It was the digging out of the old gerbil cage from the bowels of the garage :cough: storage area that I banged, wrenched, or otherwise mucked up the ol’ knee.
Plus side, oldest wee beastie has started taking the dog out for runs most evenings.
To support the awesomeness that is ROW80 you can go HERE
A link in Amy Shojai’s Monday Mention post lead me to this Google Authorship post. Hello! It’s easy to implement and already my search engine traffic has doubled, if not tripled. Yes, my spam has also gone up, but not horribly, and WordPress does a fantastic job of catching it. Additionally, my images are coming up as searchable. I don’t know about you but I’m always looking for images…win.
The writing: okay, so no way this side of hell is my SF piece gonna be done for submission on Thursday. I spent a bit of time going back and forth. Should I keep pushing through? Should I return to the fantasy piece I was so close to finishing the first draft on? In the end, I’ve decided to keep pushing through with the SF piece. I need to get through it, even if it never reaches publish ready, for the lessons learned aspect. Ideally, I’d like to work on the fantasy piece during my D&E writing time (new wordage) and the SF piece in the afternoon (revisions/edits).
The blogging: I continue to work toward having two weeks scheduled (not counting these Sunday Summary posts) and managed to get quite a few posts drafted earlier in the week. So I’m feeling like this is a win though most of those drafts aren’t ready to schedule yet. Having taken the pressure of the sub deadline off the table I’ve managed to get around to commenting more. Yay.
The social media: thanks to Jenny Hansen’s More Cowbell Tribe on Triberr I’ve been meeting my retweet goal. Since signing up for StumbleUpon and Google + I’ve actually been spreading the love around. I even managed a bit of a conversation with @NatalieHartford on Twitter. Gasp, I know.
Speaking of social media, did you know that you will be switched to Facebook’s Timeline by the end of the month? If you haven’t played with it yet, you may want to. Perhaps 6 Reasons Authors Should Love Timeline from Marcy Kennedy and Lisa Hall-Wilson will help. I hate that they are forcing the change but I kinda like the look of it. We’ll see.
But wait! There’s more…YouTube. Brinda Berry talked about being Savvy with Sanity on Gloria Richard’s blog. Do you utilize YouTube?
The health: Water. Check. Sugar reduction. Check. Dog walks… half a check? Wind has been really bad again this week. 70+ wind gusts one day which trapped me inside completely! I was able to get out for a walk once plus a game of fetch (great for the dog but didn’t do much for me, LOL) another day. Still working on this. I may have to resort to running up and down the stairs for a half hour (great for me but wouldn’t do much for the dog).
The lovely Claire Hennessy nominated me for this award. Thanks so much Claire
The rules are to share ten facts about oneself and pass the award on to six fab bloggers. It is hard to come up with interesting facts about yourself. And if you’re really curious I’ll point you to my Versatile Blogger posts here and here plus the 7 X 7 Link post.
Instead, I offer up to you, my Top 10 Sexy Men
(alphabetically so no one feels slighted of course)
Adrian Paul
Christopher Eccleston
Clive Owen
Eric Etebari
Gerard Butler
Hugh Jackman
Mark Dacascos
Oded Fehr
Sendhil Ramamurthy
Shemar Moore
Will Smith
Oops. Miscounted.
Who is in your top 10?
Okay, on with the nominations…
So many of you have been beyond awesome, especially over the last few weeks when I haven’t been as good about getting to your blogs, and I’d love to name you all. In the end, I looked at my stats and picked the top visitors without this award.
The Writing: Went real well this week and I’m ahead of where I hoped to be.
The Blogging: Met my posting goal but need to spend some time restocking the scheduled queue
The Social Media: My biggest challenge, sigh. The blog commenting went well and I think I met my goal of 3 a day plus at least 2 new for the week. I didn’t keep track of the Twitter or the Facebook stuff and know it was another retweet fail week. It’s only the second week, it can only get better, right?
The Health: Doing well with the water, most days getting in an extra two glasses over my three glass baseline. The dog walking, yay, hit it this week though not up to our usual length. I had to cut them short because my toe still hurts when I wear closed toe shoes and it is too cold for flip-flops, LOL, but still got in a half hour each time.
Have you ever reported a drunk driver? Were you afraid to get involved or just not sure you recognized the signs? Natalie Hartford has an excellent post on reporting drunk drivers.
One reason I read (and write) romance is that no matter what the couple go through I’m guaranteed a happily-ever-after (or at least a happily-right-now).
Love at first sight.
I’d like to think it possible though I’m not sure I believe in it. The thought is toe-curling romantic to me. Now, lust at first sight. Oh yeah.
Soul-mates.
Again, I’d like to think it possible. That someone out there completes you, connecting with you on all levels. Romantic sigh.
A second chance at love.
That I believe in. That I live.
Claddagh: Let Love and Friendhsip Reign Forever
Fifteen — well, fifteen and a half — years ago, That Man proposed to me, standing in the kitchen of our first home on the day we received the keys. Our romance has had the ups and downs, and times when the conflict seemed overwhelming, you’d expect from a romance novel. And I’m still crazy in love with him.
Last week I mentioned Samhain as part of my Sunday Summary which is considered the Celtic New Year. Out with the old, in with the new. Could there be a better time to embark on a new life together? This month marks fourteen years. Happy anniversary honey!
For me, romance is in the little things; a touch, a look, a whisper. Butterflies from a shared look. I’m a chocoholic, is it any wonder that I get lost in My Guy’s dark chocolate colored eyes? Contentment in resting your head on his chest, right over his heart with its reassuring beat. A sense of coming home when your special someone embraces you. Then there’s the cadence of his voice. It is the sweetest music to my ears. And how about the spark that tickles across your skin when you touch after an absence.
Yesterday, Natalie Hartford talked about Marking Special Anniversaries. November is a great month for anniversaries As I said in my comment on her post, My Guy and I celebrate the “just because” days more than the big dates. But in the end…
Romance is all about being mindful of how lucky you are to have found each other.
Romance is about falling in love a little bit more each day. A cute take on that is the movie 50 First Dates with Drew Berrymore and Adam Sandler. For those of you who haven’t seen it, Sandler’s character needs to get Berrymore’s character, who suffers from short-term memory loss, to fall in love with him each day. Is there anything more romantic than your special someone making you fall in love with them all over again?
What does Romance mean to you? Do you and your honey celebrate the Hallmark days or the “just because” days?
*For more on the ring and the hidden meanings on how to wear it check out the Claddagh Story.
There’s this place in me where your fingerprints still rest, your kisses still linger, and your whispers softly echo. It’s the place where a part of you will forever be a part of me.
If you’d like to play along, let me know in the comments and I’ll assign you a letter.
followed by 
. I don’t think you’ll regret stepping into Mia’s world.
with Drew Berrymore and Adam Sandler. For those of you who haven’t seen it, Sandler’s character needs to get Berrymore’s character, who suffers from short-term memory loss, to fall in love with him each day. Is there anything more romantic than your special someone making you fall in love with them all over again?
