The Summer of my Discount Tent

A couple months ago Groupon offered two nights at the Cannon Beach Hotel for $175. I hit the 'buy' button without any firm plan for when we'd go. Then I came up with the idea that we could all go the day after Christmas. Checked with The Husband and he was on board with it. The kids were generally in accord, and over the last few weeks we've all repeated the phrase "but on the 26th, we get to leave". Over and over again.

And on the 26th, we did leave. All four of us packed into The Husband's new car, arguing over which satellite radio station to listen to and who got what out of the bag of Christmas cookies. (For the record, my fave Siruis #50 The Groove was the consistent looser.) We got to Cannon Beach just in time for a blast of wind and rain - the picture above shows the kids trying to run into a 40mph gust.

Which prompted The Husband to tell us about the summer he and his buddy decided to drive from Seattle to Alaska in his buddy's old Toyota with a Shell gas card, $100, three cans of tuna and a loaf of bread. Oh, and a leaky tent they bought at a discount place. That's over 2000 miles, most of it on two-lane roads. And they survived. And then I married him. If I had to guess, most of the $100 was spent on beer.

Our family trip wasn't nearly that adventurous, although we did have a very good time. There was plenty of laughter, which is what really counts.
Peace,
Liv

New ways to waste time.

One of the biggest challenges to finishing a novel (or a short story, or a blog post) is finding the time to sit down and write. And then, even when you have the time, there are other traps. Like, in the olden days writers would stare out the window and daydream, their pencils or pens suspended over dog-eared spiral notebooks. Now, they can toggle between tabs on their web browsers, or maybe play a quick game of mah jong or Freecell, all in the name of finding just the right word or planning the next plot twist.

Because really, eBay makes a great thesaurus. And nothing is better than Facebook for helping you understand your character's goals and motivations. My own personal favorite and newest obsession is pinterest. I can spend a ridiculous amount of time looking at all the pretty pictures. Time that I've carved out of the rest of my life, when I'm not working my full time job or running the kids from swim practice to cello lessons or whatever. Time that I should be actually writing.


I justify it by telling myself I'm doing research, looking for pictures that inspire my newest work-in-progress...on which very little actual progress is happening, although I do have a nice collection of pictures that might inspire some writing if I ever stop looking at pictures long enough to actually write something. And just so you know I'm not fooling, here's a link to my Storyboard.

I think you'll agree that pictures are pretty, and I hope someday their story will get told! 
Peace,
Liv

...and some are naughtier than others...

So I'm blogging today over at the Black Opal Authors Blog.
It's a funny little post about how to handle the naughty bits, and I hope you check it out.
Peace,
Liv

Christmas Drives Me Crazy

Last week I downloaded the Goddess Tarot app for my phone. It's a beautiful set of cards that were created by Kris Waldherr (http://www.artandwords.com/). To learn more about the tarot, I've been doing a one-card reading every day. I get quiet and breath and come up with a question for the day, then tap the deck and see which card comes up. This morning the card was the eight of cups, and the question had to do with how I was going to survive Christmas.

See, in principle, Christmas is okay. I guess. I just wish that the rather significant religious holiday could be split off from the secular kerfuffle. I love the idea that the first Sunday of Advent is the start of a new liturgical year. I love the darkness and the anticipation, the rhythmic and cyclical nature of it, the way it marks time and helps you see where you are. I love lighting the candles on the wreath and John the Baptist's voice crying in the wilderness and singing the O Antiphons on the fourth Sunday of Advent and if you don't know what the hell I'm talking about, that's okay too. Trust me. It's cool.

I even love Midnight Mass, I mean, I would love it, if I weren't so damned exhausted by the shopping and the decorating and the Social Expectations. Christmas cards make me grumpy, I never get my packages in the mail on time, and the other day my eyes got all crossed because the husband put lights on the tree the wrong way. Did you know there was a right way and a wrong way to put lights on a Christmas tree? Me either, and I suspect there really isn't. If I was sane about all this. Which I'm not.

The tarot card I drew today, the eight of cups, signifies a period of change, a time to look at letting go of what's not working. On the http://www.learntarot.com/ website, the descriptors they use for this card are along the lines of focusing on personal truth, leaving the rat race, and concentrating on what's important. O-kay. Not unrelated to current events. So, if you usually get a Christmas card from me, maybe not this year. Consider it a nod towards resource management. And I promise I'll be mailing those gifts sometime soon. Before Valentines Day, anyway.
Peace,
Liv

(PS, you can get a copy of The Goddess Tarot from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Goddess-Tarot-Deck-Kris-Waldherr/dp/1572810661
or from your phone's app store.)

I love me a cat pageant.

 

So I'm a bit obsessed with this image. Wonder why? Heh. I found it while trolling pinterest.com, which I'm also a bit obsessed with. I saw this picture and knew right away that this was a guy I could write about. Please don't tell me that this is really a promo shot from some movie I'll never see.  His story is unwinding slowly in my own head.

So far I've got a half demon/half Danaan sidhe girl for him to play with, a minor deity who's his girl's best friend, and a ghost named Jimmy who says things like, "Well, that was a hell of a cat pageant" when things have gone bad. I have no idea where any of this is going - okay, maybe a few glimmers - but there are still major holes that I need to fill.  That's alright. It'll come.

And as it does, I may just share it. My plan is to create a pinterest.com page with images that are inspiring the work. Like, the half demon girl might look like Lilly Cole, and the chandelier in the lobby might look like this:

Then every so often, I'll link the pinterest.com page to the blog here, so you can see where it's going. I've requested membership, and as soon as I get it I'll start to work. And oh, if you're curious, the man in the photo above is Eric Dane, who I honestly had never heard of till I saw this picture. I'm old, you know. Kids these days...

Peace,

Liv

Yay! It's out!

I'm feeling pretty good right now, because after a couple months of hard work, the Christmas Treats anthologies are finally available. My piece, The Santa Drag, made Santa's Nice List, but both books are full of entertaining holiday spirit. My thanks to Darlene and Annie and all the rest from Still Moments Publishing, and to the fine group of authors I've met there. If I've done it right, you can click the Christmas Treats image above this post, and it'll take you to the publisher's website where you can download a copy. Thanks very much, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
Peace,
Liv

Oy To The World

So on a discussion list I follow, someone posted the following question:

What's your favorite Christmas song or album/CD?

Hands down, for me, it's the "Oy To The World" CD by The Klezmonauts. What, you don't automatically associate Christmas with Klezmer music? Really?

Well, okay. I'll grant you it's not an automatic link. They go together like, maybe, peanut butter and potato chips. Different, and not to everyone's taste, but yummy if you're into it. In fact, I like this CD so well that I just went to Amazon and downloaded a copy to this laptop, because it was easier than going through our CD racks in the living room and finding the disc. Oh Amazon, you're just so...

Which brings me to the real point of this rant. Geez, but it is easy to buy shit off Amazon. Maybe too easy. Like, I'm wandering around the internet and I read a review of a book that sounds appealing. I make a couple clicks and get a sample sent to my Kindle. Then, a month or so later, I'm sitting at the kid's swim practice or standing at the bus stop or waiting for a delivery at work, and I read the sample. It is good! Click! Bingo! I've bought the book - and somehow they don't post the price where I can see it when I click the "buy it now" button.

And that's the craziest part. I'm such a book-whore that I try (tried?) to avoid paying full price whenever possible. I buy used or check things out from the library or wait for the paperback. Sorry, authors. Console yourself with knowing that while I might cheap out on the individual sale, I make up for it in volume (says the girl with multiple copies of most of what Charlaine Harris has ever written). I try to tell myself that there's a novelty factor involved, and that when I get used to it, I'll use more judgement about what goes on my Kindle or into my Amazon Cloud. Someday...

So here's a link (I think...you might need to copy and paste it into your browser) to The Klezmonauts on Amazon, in case all of this has inspired you to check them out.

http://www.amazon.com/Oy-World-Klezmonauts/dp/B00000FXN2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1323182898&sr=8-1

And if you're additionally inspired, leave a recommendation in the comments for other Christmas music I should check out.

Peace,

Liv