Amy Lane's Blog: Writer's Lane, page 121

So I was whining about my schedule...

Forgive the blurriness-- this is Squish in a gym that's
probably 95 degrees, dancing her heart out.
Tonight we'll be on stage, hopefully with some AC.
Anyway-- yes. Whining. Whining is definitely the word.  But something amazing happened-- let me show you.

Today-- get recital costumes and Father's Day gifts from Target.  At 4:30 take kids to recital rehearsal.

Tomorrow-- at 4 take Big T to family friend's B-day celebration. Promptly ditch out on it to take kids to recital rehearsal.

Sunday-- wake up SOOPER early to give Mate Father's Day stuff, then get on a plane for San Diego to see Chicken's graduation.

Meet Rhys Ford for lunch and friends and hanging.  Go to hotel room and write.

Guys! This is the logo in
action! You can see the different
types of Amy in the lists!Monday-- Chicken's graduation

Tuesday-- Chicken and I come home

Wednesday-- work out and dance practice

Thursday-- sleep? Something. There's gotta be something.

Friday-- Recital 1

Saturday-- Recital 2

Sunday-- Pack Zoomboy for Europe

Monday-- See Zoomboy OFF to Europe at Ass-crack-thirty a.m.

Drive from airport to San Francisco so I can be at Moscone center at 10:45 for book signing for ALA.

Wait. Did you see that last one?

Let me highlight it with links.  Meet the Author Event at ALA, Amy Lane, Signing from 11:00 am-- 12:00 pm, 

This was just cute.So, uh, yeah.  I AM going to be a little busy between now and then, but on Monday, June 29th, I'm going to be in San Francisco (YAY!) and I'm going to be signing books at the Moscone center exhibit hall with RWA.

So, yanno.

That's sort of exciting, cause it's in my backyard.

Hopefully, I'll see you there!

Amy

Happy Anniversary!

So, every morning I wake up, go get my phone from the charger, and bring it back to bed to set the alarm for the next half-hour.

Yesterday morning I did that.  Mate was up hellishly early considering the fact that we'd gotten in around ten o'clock the night before after the drive from San Diego, and my eyes were so bleary I could barely see as I was scanning my e-mail, to make sure I didn't have anything pressing before I went back to sleep.

And suddenly the date caught my attention.

"Oh God," I mumbled.

"What's wrong?"  Mate was slinging his backpack over his shoulder as he said it.

"Happy Anniversary honey," I said, feeling pathetic.

Yup. 26th.  And welcomed in such style too!

Tonight we went out for dinner and came home early, sagged on the couch and watched The Daily Show.

John Stewart was sort of amazing.

26 years with Mate is even more so.

Next year, maybe we'll go dancing :-)

And that's all I gots...

*  All I did today was sleep and poop.  I know you don't care about that, but it made ME excited about writing.  (I do some of my best plotting right before I drop off and right before I wake up. And, you know, contemplating.)
*  Yesterday in the car, I was just wondering if it was time to pull over when…
Me: "What is that?"
Mate: "Oh my God… what IS that?"
Zoomboy: "Heh heh heh heh…"
Mate: "He's in the BACK OF THE CAR and we got that!"
Me: "That's it. We've got a fifteen minute meeting at a rest stop, right now!"
ZB: "Heh heh heh…"
*  I picked up the dogs this morning. The first thing they did was dig for kitty-roca. It's like I"m surrounded.
*  And now on to dance recital rehearsal. But at least I'm cleansed and well rested! 

Chicken's Portfolio Project

My beautiful, beautiful Chicken, who has done so very
well.  See that tablecloth? Only one that wasn't black.
That's my baby girl!Okay-- so most of you have figured out that I wasn't at home as Deep of the Sound released.

We travels down to San Diego, because Chicken had her portfolio show, and she asked for family support.

We didn't do many vacation-y things.  We drove down, stayed in a low-rent hotel (with a great pool, because the kids had to have SOMETHING) and spent our time taking Chicken shopping and going to the movies and eating out.  (Our hotel room was so small that Big T didn't fit-- he ended up sleeping on his sister's futon. True bonding!)

Anyway--

I have a few pictures for you, and tomorrow I may remember some of the funny things my family said (because we do entertain ourselves, yes we do) but tonight?
My dad and Big T. We all looked so much like family that
her friends were like, "Oh! Family Lane. Nice to meetya!"
Dudes.

I'm tired.

So I'll leave you with this: Squish was getting upset because Chicken and Big T were talking about scary movies while she was in the back of the car. I ended up calming her down by showing her "Dear Kitten" YouTube videos on the was back to the hotel but first I told her that Sam and Dean would come saver her from anything scary.

To which her brother retorted, "Yeah, but only after the first body!"

Good point, young one, good point!
Mate and Squishy ad Big Bear Diner. Yes, we bought
stuffed bears. Why?
Anyway-- leaving you with my beautiful Chicken and my beautiful family. I'm going to use the caption function, which means those of you reading from GR are going to be a little cheated because the captions go EVERYWHERE.  Sorry about that!

Enjoy :-)


We also played the jukebox. 

Big T also played the jukebox. Apparently jukeboxes
are fascinating.
Road to Lancaster. Just sort of cool.
Us, in BJ's Bar and Grill, before they lost all our respect
by seating us whenEVER, losing our order, and
running away from Mate as he tried to pay the bill.
Lane family is never going back there again. But
my kids make any place look good.
Kids and Mate in the pool.  Yeah, I spent my hour--
It was a really awesome food!

Blog Tour for Deep of the Sound

This is mostly just an alert that, starting tomorrow (Monday!) I'm going to have articles and excerpts for Deep of the Sound popping up, well, everywhere.

I'm posting the schedule tonight (Sunday!) so that you all can keep look for it-- I'm telling you folks, some of my best stories went into this one, both the funny and the sad.

I hope you enjoy the tour-- and by all means let me know if you do-- and please enjoy the story!









Deep of the Sound available at Amazon.com 
Deep of the Sound available on Kindle
Deep of the Sound available on ARe
Deep of the Sound available at Riptide










Tour Titles: The Deep of the Sound (A Bluewater Bay Novel)

Stops for this tour:June 15, 2015 - The Novel ApproachJune 15, 2015 - Bookaholics Not-So-AnonymousJune 15, 2015 - Book Reviews and More by KathyJune 15, 2015 - Prism Book AllianceJune 16, 2015 - Things I Find While ShelvingJune 16, 2015 - Cup o' PornJune 16, 2015 - The Jeep DivaJune 16, 2015 - Creative DeedsJune 17, 2015 - Boys on the BrinkJune 17, 2015 - All I Want and MoreJune 17, 2015 - Love Bytes ReviewsJune 18, 2015 - Scattered Thoughts and Rogue WordsJune 18, 2015 - 3 Chicks After DarkJune 18, 2015 - MM Good Book ReviewsJune 18, 2015 - Sinfully Sexy BooksJune 19, 2015 - LeAnn's Book ReviewsJune 19, 2015 - Rainbow Gold ReviewsJune 19, 2015 - TTC Books and MoreJune 19, 2015 - Fangirl Moments and My Two Cents- See more at: http://riptidepublishing.com/events/t...

Deep of the Sound

I'm going to be out of town- hopefully I can post this now and everyone will remember!

Deep of the Sound is out-- and if you buy it at Riptide, it should be available this weekend!

If you want to wait for amazon-- here is the link for the paperback, and when it comes up on Kindle (anytime between now and Monday, I hope!) it should be near that same spot on the net :-)  Of course I'll try to fix the link as soon as it's up-- and on ARe as well, once it gets there.  But in the meantime, you know… drumroll please…

I'm going to post the blurb in a sec, but I've been talking about my color coding, and while I haven't gotten to yellow yet, you should know that this is not yellow.  This is code orange Amy-- Angsty Amy.  It's got some sad and some grit, but a little sweetness too-- but be prepared.  Some unkind soul called it a PSA, but those of you who like my angsty orange best know that usually I've drawn from some real life experiences for my angst.  I'll have my blog tour up on Monday, and you can follow what came from where-- including why I'd put a really big fish in my book, and why Avery's bank did that incredibly stupid-ass thing.

And why Cal's brother is the way he is.

So for those of you who like that, stay tuned for the blog tour-- and for the links-- cause it's all a-comin'.  But right now, here's the blurb:

Cal McCorkle has lived in Bluewater Bay his whole life. He works two jobs to support a brother with a laundry list of psychiatric diagnoses and a great-uncle with Alzheimer’s, and his personal life amounts to impersonal hookups with his boss. He’s got no time, no ambition, and no hope. All he has is family, and they’re killing him one responsibility at a time.Avery Kennedy left Los Angeles, his family, and his sleazy boyfriend to attend a Wolf’s Landing convention, and he has no plans to return. But when he finds himself broke and car-less in Bluewater Bay, he’s worried he’ll have to slink home with his tail between his legs. Then Cal McCorkle rides to his rescue, and his urge to run away dies a quick death.Avery may seem helpless at first, but he can charm Cal’s fractious brother, so Cal can pretty much forgive him anything. Even being adorkable. And giving him hope. But Cal can only promise Avery “until we can’t”—and the cost of changing that to “until forever” might be too high, however much they both want it. See?  Even the font is angsty orange!Anyway folks-- I hope you enjoy the new book! I'll be updating the website on Monday (like, at bumfuck a.m.) as soon as all the links are up!  Have a great weekend!Amy

Chicken's Deal

Okay--

So if I've seemed a little absent it's because I'm getting ready to go on not one but two trips in short succession.  See, Chicken is graduating with a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science-- and yes, she went through a compressed program.  So, she's twenty, and stressed, and wondering if she stays in San Diego or comes home, and in the middle of all of that, we're getting ready to take the whole family down to her portfolio show.

She has a graduation, of course, but it's a week after the portfolio show, and only three of us can go to that.  So the deal is, as a family, we're all driving down to the portfolio show-- driving down on Saturday, seeing the show on  Monday, driving back on Tuesday, so the little kids can attend their dance recital rehearsals.

I am flying back down on Father's day (the 21st), so I can be one of the people (along with Rhys Ford) who will see her graduation, and then I'm flying back on Tuesday, so I can help the kids with recital.  Then the kids will have recital on Friday the 25th and Saturday the 26th, and on Monday the 29th we're taking Zoomboy to the airport from whence he will fly to Europe.  (Something else we're getting ready for.)  After we drop him off, we're driving down to San Francisco, where I will sign books for ALA at the Moscone Center from 11--12:30 (I think!).  



Then Mate and Squish and I will knock around San Francisco for a day, and come home.

Glorious home.

Where I plan to sleep for a day.

And then start getting ready for RWA, while editing, writing, etc, and all those other things I do for my job.

So now you know I'm just busy, and not that I've stopped being active.  I am, in fact, slightly over active.  But Deep of the Sound is coming out this weekend (If you ordered it from Riptide!)  and it will be out Monday if you're ordering it from amazon.  (The paperback is already available!)   and there is a blog tour that goes with it that I'm sort of proud of.  (I know-- you get tired of blog tours-- which is kinda too bad, because I think if I went back and compiled all my @#$%ing blog tours, I'd have a decent autobiography, yanno?)  So there's a blog tour, and a chance to win some of my Riptide titles (and there's getting to be more of them!) and, you know DEEP OF THE SOUND coming out.  I'll have some posts about that tomorrow, because NEW RELEASE!

So bear with me, okay?  I'm still here.  Oh-- and the snake?  Because he is silly, and I feel a little like him, because on somedays, I don't think think I'm fooling anybody.  "Hello, fellow grownups… I am also a grownup…"  See?  You can see the resemblance, right?  OH!  And the picture above?  Chicken did that of Squish. I. Am. So. Proud.

Serendipity

So, we're going to go see Chicken's portfolio show, and we lined up one of the kid's friends to come babysit the dogs.
And then I got guilty.
Cause, she's going to come and sit with them twice a day, but… but… but my dogs are used to, you know… people! People all the time!  People who worship them all the time!
So last night, I was saying to Mate, "How would you feel about a kennel, or having them board with someone?"  
"That's great. I have no idea how to find that."
Well, I was just going to go internet, right?
But first I had to work out early, take ZB to register for school (see yesterday's blog post!), drop off his T-Dap, conference with Squish's principal, maybe eat, maybe nap, and definitely work.  
So, it wasn't looking good for our little doggie pals.
And then, there I was, at that first thing.  Squish and I were working out early--with a different instructor, one I don't know as well.  She was chatting with us as we were working out, and she mentioned that she ran a dog boarding business.  She had some openings.
0.0
So there you go. 
A perfect dog boarding situation just dropped into our laps.  She's kind, her mother is kind, and she's been running this business for over ten years.  
And suddenly, the mile long list of things that was hounding me all week dropped by one, and so did some stress.  So there you go, folks-- serendipity. It's a thing!

Displacement

Okay-- so I'm trying to work when the kids are home.

It's not going swimmingly.  (Heh heh… get it? Swimmingly? Because we went swimming yesterday?)

Anyway… today I did a curious thing.  It's been a while since I've done something like this, and I think I'm starting to feel the grip of that sleep deprivation/stress cycle that I lived inside for a couple of years.

I had an agenda:

A. Go get coffee.
B. Go to weight watchers.
C. Take the dogs home, work for an hour.
D. Take Zoomboy in to register for his classes.

I managed A and B-- even though I was late and B was useless because I missed my meeting.

And then, in the middle of C, the kids started whining for milk. "Can we have milk? We ran out of milk this morning. Can we have milk?"

And in spite of the fact that D was obviously a much more solid priority, suddenly it MORPHED. It became, "Just let me finish what we're doing and I'll get milk, dammit!"

And I got back with the groceries, looked at the clock, and realized I'd just blown off a REALLY IMPORTANT part of my day.

Now hopefully I can get that back tomorrow, but I'm a little worried.  It was just so easy to do.

So. Easy.

Which is something this summer is not looking to be anymore.  There is no easy in this summer at all.

It's WHEN?

Okay, folks--

For the record--I started out with every intention of starting Lollipop today.  After I submitted a Winter Ball,  took the dog to the vet, did two loads of laundry, took the kids to the pool, called my son's school to set up a registration appointment, had a nap to make up for the five hours of sleep the night before, had a conversation with a colleague, then another one, then fetched the dog, then started dinner, ate dinner, socialized with kids, with husband, with Chicken over chat, comforted the dog and gave her medicine, watched Major Crimes and tried to knit, and somehow managed three blogs for my upcoming blog tour to promote Deep of the Sound, and booked flight tickets for two trips, I discovered it was eleven o'clock and I hadn't even blogged for myself.

Holy shit.

Perhaps I'll try to write fiction tomorrow.

*headdesk*

Night all!

Amy