Melani Blazer

I must confess, I like to be busy. But sheesh already.

I am finding time to write. Often, I’ll be typing in handwritten WIP while the squirrels pretend I’m a tree. They’re *trying to count how old they probably are….* maybe nearing three months old? Eh, Let’s go with 2 1/2 months. They’re weaning themselves off milk and have quite the appetite for everything. (As I write this, Lightning’s on my arm, chewing on my watch).

So yes, they’re keeping me very busy. We’re still doing work on the kitchen. And the car. Football started. The “Chase” in Nascar started. (All valid excuses, I’m tellin’ ya) So I’ve been otherwise occupied.

And then, as if there wasn’t enough. We’ve got basement flooding today. Not major, and considering our location, we’re lucky. In ten years we’ve never had water. Our basement is considered finished, but just paneled walls, tile floor and we don’t “use” it, so it’s mainly storage. I don’t think we lost anything worth crying over, but we got a heck of a work out today trying to shopvac it all up. Oy.

Anyhoot, I’ll be here, sporadically. Bye!

update 9/15/08 9:30pm:
Mother Nature had mercy, and with the rain stopping, the influx of water also ceased. There’s still much to be done, but no more standing water. I’ll still be cleaning the better part of the week, but we’re looking on the bright side and a) realizing what a sound investment rubbermaid (and other brand) totes are and b) that we wanted to clean the basement thoroughly–and boy, have we.

So sorry if I was rushed and a little woe-is-me. I need to find a way to cram at least 35 hrs in a day, but until then, I’ll be a little less online.

I’m off to hand-write til bedtime. Night!

My husband admonished me for failing to blog. Who knew.

So, what have I done lately that’s not going to bore you to tears? Oh, we visited a pretty cool flea market Sunday morning. Bought two books–remind me to take more money next time because OMG are there venders with very inexpensive paperbacks. I grabbed two authors I’ve heard plenty of buzz about but hadn’t taken the plunge to buy at the bookstore or online. For a buck? Heck yeah I’ll bite. I totally understand and support buying books at USB’s or flea markets. It’s my intention to “try out” these authors and if I like them, you can bet I’ll be looking for their other books. (And talk the books up!)

Anyhoot, it was nice to get out of town and do it “cheaply”. As you might remember, I have no kitchen, and just dealt with felling a huge tree that decided to be a wig for our garage. Seems like all my money is being dropped at local hardware stores. However, I have walls now, the drywall is up (THANKS NEIGHBOR MIKE!!!) and we’re almost ready to sand. Half the crappy floor tiles, okay, maybe a third of them, have been pried, pulled and coerced from the floor. Dear lord, it’s insane.

I’ve been writing, or trying to. Watching Olympics when I can, working, ah, yes, the fun of that day job.

That’s about it. Wish I had more to talk about, but any more excitement might just kill me.

Ciao~

I’ll be sporadic over the next few days…

* AT 914 PM CDT…NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE DOPPLER RADAR INDICATED A SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WITH STRONG ROTATION. THIS SEVERE STORM WAS LOCATED NEAR xxxx…OR 5 MILES NORTHWEST OF xxxx…AND MOVING SOUTHEAST AT 57 MPH.

* LOCATIONS IN THE PATH OF THE SEVERE STORM INCLUDE… (Mel’s house)

THIS IS A PARTICULARLY DANGEROUS SITUATION!!!

IN ADDITION TO THE TORNADO…THIS STORM IS CAPABLE OF PRODUCING DESTRUCTIVE WINDS IN EXCESS OF 80 TO 100 MPH..

Italics my own…

Tree down. On the garage, and kinda the house roof (fell technically between them, but supported by both right now) Doesn’t look like any structural damage other than the electrical box being pulled off the house (bent, not broken, thanks to God Almighty that he left us with power intact). I’m sure a piece of siding will fix that. It could be worse, and I’ve said my prayers in thanks that it wasn’t. I still have no kitchen, (but tonight we ran the hot/cold water lines up to where my sink WILL be…eventually). So, I’ll be busy for a bit doing “other than writing and internet stuff”.

Third August in a row our town has been hit HARD with August storms. Winds at 106mph two years ago. At least 100 tonight. You do know that’s a high category two hurricane? Ain’t it fun?

~Mel, still smiling

I got this in an email today:

Apples and Wine

Women are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree. Most Men don’t want to reach for the good ones because they are afraid of falling and getting hurt.

Instead, they sometimes take the ; apples from the ground that aren’t as good, but easy. The apples at the top think something is wrong with them, when in reality, there’re amazing. They just have to wait for the right man to come along, the one who is brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree.

Now Men….Men are like a fine wine. They begin as grapes, and it’s up to women to stomp the shit out of them until they turn into something acceptable to have dinner with.

Okay, so it’s rather detrimental to men, but let’s consider the first part again, especially this last line…

wait for the right man to come along, the one who is brave enough to climb all the way to the top of the tree

Aren’t THOSE the men we write about in romance? Aren’t THOSE the ones who make up the characters that make us catch our breath, our chest tighten and give us faith in love? Even thought we might never have heard this particular analogy, I think it’s apt–and probably applies to the thinking pattern of most romance readers and writers.

The wine part? I just included it ‘cuz that’s funny right there.

Just got a notification that Cerridwen Press that they have added a nifty new button on the side bar to further help you find the kind of books you’re looking for. Already you can search by genre, author or Title/Series.
YOUNG ADULT INTEREST. These are books that have younger protagonists (for the most part) and the content would be appealing to late teen/early twenty age groups of readers. I know those books are out there, and frankly, I know myself and lots of my friends were already reading “adult” books when we were teens, for various reasons, such as they were available, the teen books weren’t all that interesting or hard to find, or we’d gone through those and were in need of other reading material…

Anyway, I’m super pleased and proud to tell you that my Cerridwen Press release, Brand Name Dates, fits this category! It’s a fun book and one I really, really love.

Brand Name Dates is available in e-book AND print. Hope you can check it out–and maybe even suggest it to a younger reader!

Mark this on the calendars, friends. I finished a book!
Writing, not reading, just to clarify.

It’s short, and it’s still missing that sex scene (or two or three….. I’ve got a night to fill). The ending is rough and there’s a few loose threads I’ve got to go back and follow through—aka, lots of editing, but omg, I completed the arcs, I satisfied the plot and gave these two characters a long awaited and well deserved happily ever after.

Knock me over with a feather.

Now, I’ll let it stew a day, or at least a night, cuz I’ve gotta go visit my Grandparents, stop at the store for meat for my contribution to tomorrow’s dinner and….I knew there was something else I wanted to do… gah! I’ll think of it, I hope.

Anyway, I’m a heck of a lot more excited than this post can convey, mainly because I’ve shifted focus SOOOOO many times lately with so many books, I was beginning to doubt my ability to hit “the end.”

I mean every one of those!

And before anyone asks…I have no idea what I’m doing with it yet. Will depend on word count and heat level after editing, I guess. I’ll let you know. But I finished, OMG, I finished!!!

or why I didn’t finish the book tonight….

Lacing those was a huge

And of course, the kidlet wanted ALL the laces flat… no crooked ones, heaven forbid.

So, now I’m off to make pepper steak (with family help) for the husband’s “potluck” tomorrow.

Maybe I’ll sneak in a page in before I pass out. Maybe.

I’ve been spending alot of free time with kidlet before she leaves us to go back to school *and* writing by hand. I’m bloghopping sporadically, ignoring yahoo loops totally and using IM to keep up almost exclusively. So I have little to comment on, sorry!

It’s been cold, snowy, but so far, 2008 has been okay. We spent New Years Eve with our neighbors, playing cards. They have the same philosophy toward life we have, so we’re able to “be” ourselves, laugh, eat and relax. There’s nothing that can compare with that!

I’ve updated side bar with MMR, the initials for my current WIP. I’m book jumping again, but I’d rather do that than write crap I’ll end up having to delete. So…. hopefully that meter will steadily increase.

See ya latah!

Christmas Eve. My boss was gracious (and perhaps fearful enough of us all) to allow an entire day off. It’s the first time I’ve had more than two days in a row off in I don’t konw how long, but never fear, there’s a zillion things to be done and they’ll have flown by me without realization.

We had all the intentions of rise and shine early this morning to get a start on things. I need to make a double batch of Snickerdoodles, as one batch is my gift to my father-in-law, who loves them like nothing else. (The rest goes into the cookie plates I think I’ve been making for the last two or three weeks, egads!)

It’s windy and cold and the best place to be at 7am is curled up next to the one you love, with the cats scattered at the edges of the bed. So we relaxed and finally stretched after one of the dear felines broke the picture perfect moment with the upheaval of a nice food encrusted hairball. Gee, thanks.

But it didn’t turn out to be a bad thing. I put on coffee (don’t drink it, but figured hubby would want it) and did the dishes that didn’t get done last night. If you read my blog last summer, you’ll know we have a tendancy to spoil the local squirrels, and they’ve come to tell their friends and expect their peanuts on the porch each morning. Of course, this morning we were late and they were running around the driveway, checking and rechecking for their breakfast. The husband tosses a double handful of nuts onto the bottom step and then heads off to check out the tv.

I see the cat, now perched (groan) on the edge of the kitchen table, staring outside. He crouches and the tail starts whipping. He doesn’t do that for squirrels, he’s used to them and accepts them. So I pick up the cat and take him to the window to “see”.
What we find was a rare treat, and totally unexpected. I call husband, then go get up daughter so we could stand in the window and watch two squirrels, four blue jays and a red headed woodpecker dance around on the porch, vying for the peanuts. Yes, we put out even more, not having expected to provide Christmas dinner for so many, but unwilling to turn away such beautiful creatures. They stayed for nearly 40 minutes, often all of them sitting on the edge of the garage roof or dashing across the steps at once. While they were benefitting, we felt the most blessed by their trust, after all, we were fully visible in the window less than three feet from them–and holding the cats so they could watch as well.

Hope your Christmas finds you a moment you cherish as much, and touches your heart in a way nothing else can.