M.J. Fredrick's Blog, page 26

My Thoughts on Man of Steel

You know I’ve been looking forward to this movie since it was announced, and not because I’m a Superman fan (Marvel all the way, baby!) But we went to see it Saturday afternoon and I enjoyed it. I ADORED the first hour, the stuff on Krypton and Henry “finding himself.” Loved the second hour less, because it was very reminiscent of THOR, but the ending was great. Here are some of my take-aways.

1) Diane Lane is a year younger than me. Holy crap. I know she was meant to look older and the long hair didn’t help, but…holy crap.

2) LOTS of the scenes are in the previews. LOTS. My fault for hunting down as many previews as I could, I guess.

3) Henry Cavill is beautiful. With a shirt, without a shirt. Beautiful.

4) Michael Shannon is hella creepy.

5) Russell Crowe looked pretty darn good.

6) Loved the twist.

7) Needed more humor.

8) Metropolis people are a hardy bunch. Buildings raining down around you? Let’s go to the museum!

9) I always wondered about the glasses as a disguise thing, until I had my LASIK. Now I can walk by people I’ve known 20 years and they don’t know me. Henry, however, I would know.

Have you seen it? Did you like it?

Goals for the Week of Fred’s Birthday

Do you know it has rained EVERY DAY of my summer vacation? Either here or Alabama? I have yet to sit at my patio table.

So this is my official first week of summer vacation, since I wasn’t home my first week. It’ll be a busy one!

1) Finish this novella. Yes, I know I’ve been saying that for weeks now, but this time I MEAN IT!

2) Start the novella that I went to Alabama to research.

3) Celebrate Father’s Day.

4) Go the Fredericksburg with Mom.

5) Go to the dentist.

6) Celebrate Fred’s birthday. I figure we’ll go to dinner on Friday, his actual birthday, then celebrate with the family on Saturday. Which means I have to keep the house up this week.

7) Spray for mosquitos as soon as the rain stops. They’re TERRIBLE.

8) Go see World War Z.

9) Finish cleaning up my craft room.

My Beach Vacation

So I’m home and recovering from my vacation. We had so much fun, but let’s just say I slept a LOT yesterday!

Friday morning, I was at the airport at 4:30. The security line was WAY shorter than I expected, so I was at the gate WITH my doughnut by 5. The flight started boarding at about 5:45. So I played a LOT of Candy Crush. For some reason, the flight out seemed long, but when I got there, and walked the ten miles from the gate, Trish was waiting for me! We hit the car and hit the road down to Alabama. If I’d worried about awkward silences, well, there were NONE. We talked nonstop for hours.

And then we hit the monsoon. Just north of Birmingham, we hit rain so heavy we had to pull off the road. We ran into a McD’s to get lunch and took it to go, thinking we’d get back on the road as soon as the rain let up. Uhhhh….it let up long enough for us to go inside, but by the time we ran BACK to the car, our bags were disintegrating from the rain! AND no napkins. So we ate and waited, and by the time we got back on the road, there’d been an accident, so traffic was at a crawl. I DID get to see the statue of Vulcan on the side of the mountain. I’d wanted to see him since reading the Anne George Southern Sisters mysteries.

Finally we got up to speed, but we didn’t get out of the rain until south of Montgomery. From there it was downhill, and the beach was waiting at the end.

Y’all. The Condo. Was awesome. 3 bedrooms, one facing the beach, with sliding doors onto the patio. We took pictures from the balcony while we waited for Tanya. Once we got everything upstairs, we headed out for dinner at Bubba’s. It was good food after a long drive. Then we went back to the condo and sat on the balcony. Below us, we watched flashlight beams all over the beach, but had no idea what was going on. We stayed up until around 1, I think.

The next morning, I was the first one awake, naturally. It got bright by 5:30. I snuck into the kitchen, snagged some food and headed out to the balcony. I sat outside for a couple of hours before I started itching to go downstairs, but I didn’t have a key to get back in. I decided to get dressed anyway, leave a note, and hope they came to get me before they left. By the time I got dressed, though, Trish was awake, so I waited a bit. We decided to drive around doing research for our books. When we were driving, we saw an actual beach wedding, which Tanya is writing about, and so pulled off and walked around on that public beach. Then we stopped at a souvenir shop, then ate lunch, then went to the Welcome Center, where we loaded up on pamphlets and talked to the lady. Then we hit the grocery store for something to drink on the balcony and headed back to the condo to work.

After work, we headed out to dinner again, this time to Wolf Bay Lodge, where I met a kitty and gave her some of my flounder.

We planned to go back to the condo and walk on the beach to look for crabs (what all those people had been doing the night before with the flashlights) but there was a lot of lightning in the area, so we watched Warm Bodies, then sat on the balcony and watched the storm in the distance.

The next day, the storm wasn’t in the distance. Rain chased me off the balcony, so I went back to sleep, and woke up to find both Tanya and Trish were awake. We went down to the beach but were chased back in by the rain. We had to put our clothes in the dryer! We left the condo to eat, though we had to try 2 restaurants before we ended up at Hurricane, which was pretty good. We worked throughout the afternoon on different projects. Finally the rain let up around 4, so we went for a walk on the beach. It was still raining a bit, but no one cared–we’d come to the beach and we were going to walk on it, damn it! I got some cool shells.

We went out for Italian and watched the first half of the Spurs game, then went back and walked on the beach to see the crabs.

Guess how many we found? NONE. Of course, we were using our phone flashlights, lol. It was fun, though, being out on the beach that late.

The next morning, Tanya had to leave and we had to vacate the condo, but Trish and I decided to stay another day. Naturally, it POURED all morning. We ate breakfast, then drove around and ended up on the pier.

THAT was a whole new adventure. Trish had thought we’d walk to the end of the pier and back. We were there 3 hours! First, people kept saying there was a hammerhead shark around. THEN people started catching sharks, the black-tipped ones. They didn’t pull them in (well, one guy did, but apparently he wasn’t supposed to) but we got to see them thrashing around in the water. AND we saw the hammerhead swimming around. AND a stingray!

But here’s the thing. When we walked in, there were two flags flying–a red and a blue/purple. I had no idea what they meant, but Trish knew the red meant bad riptides, so we googled and saw blue/purple meant dangerous marine life. I would not have known this if Trish hadn’t mentioned the flags.

While we were on the pier, we heard sirens, and saw them pull onto the beach not far away. We saw a guy on a jet ski run up and down the coast, clearly looking for someone. It turned out an older gentleman had tried to save his granddaughter, who was caught in a riptide, and while he’d saved her, he’d gotten caught and drowned. They had rescue divers in the water, and a sonar boat, and finally they called in a helicopter, which spotted the man and hovered until the boats came. It was really a terrible thing to witness. I kept thinking, “He was alive when we walked out here.” They closed the water after that, and PEOPLE WERE STILL IN THE WATER! Yeesh.

So we went back to Wolf Bay for dinner, then checked into our hotel, also on the beach, but not nearly as nice. I think the whole room was as big as my bedroom in the condo! We watched a little TV, then went down to the beach to see the crabs. This time we DID! We saw 4. When we were walking out of the room, I saw a little kid with a net and asked him what he caught, and he said about 20! So 4 was a little disappointing, but at least we knew we weren’t being had, lol.

We left the beach the following morning, sadly, and had a LONG day driving. I kept dozing! We got to Nashville about 6, I FINALLY met Trish’s husband, and we went out to dinner. I was in bed by midnight.

The next morning, we went to The Hermitage, but it was HELLA hot, so we didn’t stay long. Still, very cool to see an old plantation. Then we met Trish’s friend Lara for lunch, then drove around Nashville in what I called the “see Nashville in 6 hours” tour, since I needed to be at the airport by 3:30.

So, a whirlwind trip, but very inspirational!

Available Now–Taking the Bull by the Horns

This is a re-release of my 2009 novella for the Wayback, Texas series. I think it sold about 100 copies, all told.

Lavender Prouty has always lived in the Texas town of Cascade. Everyone in her family fled the small town, leaving her with her ailing grandmother. She’s so accustomed to denying herself, she doesn’t know how to react when a handsome cowboy flirts with her during a field trip to the fairgrounds.

Taylor Craig hasn’t always been a steer wrestler, but he doesn’t talk about his past. He’s made enough money to buy a spread near Big Bend, and he loves the cowboy life. Rodeoing answers his need to wander.

When he meets Lavender, those needs shift. He likes how she treats her class, likes her humor, is intrigued by her shyness. Women are always throwing themselves at him, but now he’ll do the chasing.

Can Taylor’s charm lower Lavender’s defenses?

Available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Smashwords.

Coming Soon–Taking the Bull by the Horns

In addition to getting back the rights to Don’t Look Back, I also got the rights to Taking the Bull by the Horns. It was part of the Wayback Rodeo series, so I did some revisions and got a new cover.

It will be available this weekend!

Don’t Look Back–Available Again

I got the rights back to my 2012 Epic Award finalist, Don’t Look Back, and have rereleased it.

“The chemistry and sexual tension between Liv and Dell is sizzling. The action scenes of the book had me sitting on the edge of my seat and I couldn’t put it down. I was able to get through this novel in one day, it was that good.” –Tyhada Reads

“If you are the kind of fan who can’t get enough of seat of your pants excitement, who loves terror filled moments followed by harrowing rescues and, in the mist of it all, a love affair that beckons to the romantic in us, all then go no farther. In “Don’t Look Back”, you’ll find a novel to fill all those needs.” –Long and Short Reviews

“In my opinion, the fact that M.J. Fredrick portrays the story in gritty and realistic terms to the very last detail made this earn a spot from my favorite reads for this year.” –Realm of Romance

Blurb:

When her best friend is kidnapped in Africa, Dr. Liv Olney must return to the scene of her own horrific captivity. The only man she trusts is former Army Lt. Gerard “Del” Delaney, the man who rescued her. Even with him, she can’t relinquish control of her emotions, needing to keep painful memories at bay.

In exile after a court martial that stripped him of everything, Del misses his son and his country. When Liv asks for help, his instinct is to turn away. But her courage reaches out to him and he cannot refuse, especially when she promises that she can help clear his name so he can go home.

Together they travel to Africa, where they fight warlords and monsoons, and learn to trust and hope that, together, they can find happiness and peace.

It’s available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo and Smashwords.

Goals the Week of Nashville

Since we’re at the beach and all.

I’m sitting on my bed in the condo at Gulf Shores. Trish and Tanya are asleep, and it’s raining. I fell asleep around 2 AM and woke up around 7. I should take advantage of the rainy weather and sleep, but I just can’t. I figure I’ll sleep all day Thursday, when I get home, lol.

We had a good plotting session yesterday, and I’m excited to get started on this novella. Need to finish the one I’m working on first.

This week:

1) Enjoy my time with Trish. We drive back to Nashville tomorrow, a 9 hour drive from here. We’re going to sight-see in Nashville on Tuesday and Wednesday, and I fly home Wednesday afternoon.

2) Sleep. I’m very nearly a zombie, since I’ve slept around 4-5 hours a night for the past week.

3) Laundry! There will be a ton when I get home.

4) Spray the yard for skeeters, since that will be my “office” the next few weeks. I got something you attach to the hose, and it’s supposed to last for 8 weeks. We’ll see.

5) Finish the novella I’m working on.

My Vacation

In 26 years of marriage, Fred and I have spent VERY few nights apart. A couple nights when he was in the hospital, when Josh was little, and I stayed at Mom’s. A couple of nights when he went to LA for work. A night when Trish and I stayed in Corpus, when she was doing research on one of her books. Three nights each time I went to visit my dad on my own.

This week will be the longest time we’ve been apart, when I go to the beach with Trish so we can work on an anthology. It will be five nights apart.

That’s still fewer than 20 nights in 26 years, but it makes me anxious. Crazy, right?

Goals for the LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL!

As if the last week of school isn’t crazy enough, I’m leaving Friday morning to Nashville. Trish and I will drive to Gulf Shores from there, where we’ve rented a condo with Tanya Michaels. We’re working on an anthology together and are doing research. This will be the LONGEST time I’ve been away from Fred in 26 years–5 nights, because after our weekend in Gulf Shores, I’m going to hang in Nashville a couple of days.

So I’m taking off the very last day of school, the workday/luncheon day. By the time the other teachers are at school, I’ll be landing in Nashville. So I have to close up my room by Thursday. GULP. At least 5th grade will be going on a couple of field trips, so that will give me a little extra time.

This week:

Close up my room.

Get as close to finishing my current novella as possible.

Make a list for Fred and Josh–things they need to know about the pets and plants.

Pack.

Do laundry so I have things to pack!

Hide my crazy the best I can, lol!

Summer Goals

It doesn’t feel like it’s almost summer vacation. I’m so incredibly stressed because there’s so much to do between now and then. But I thought maybe I’d post my summer goals.

I plan to eat breakfast on my patio table as often as possible, and spend the mornings out there writing or reading. It will make up for HOURS in a room with NO WINDOW during the school year.

Writing Goals:

2000 words a day. That should net me:

1) Write 2 Christmas novellas, one historical and one contemporary.

2) Write and publish another novella.

3) Get a good start on the first novel in my new series.

House goals:

1) Clean garage

2) Clean sewing room and KEEP IT THAT WAY.

3) Clean kitchen cabinets.

4) Straighten bathroom cabinets.

5) Clean closet.

Fun goals:

1) Do something with Mom once a week. Our list includes trips to Fredericksburg, Seguin, Schulenberg, IKEA…

2) Sew up fabric.

3) Catch up on reading.

4) Hang out with Trish at the beach.

5) Visit my dad in MN.

6) Movies, almost weekly!