Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 143
November 5, 2013
Adventures In Home Ownership
To paraphrase a poster I saw online recently:
I've been feeling overwhelmed with things I need to do since June. Maybe earlier than June, but that's when the stress kicked into high gear with all the house and moving stuff. I tell people that I'm living my life in triage mode--I take care of whatever's bleeding hardest and let the rest slide. It hasn't been fun and then toss in more than a month of insomnia. Just for some extra challenge.
Last Friday, though, I thought things were maybe taking a turn for the better. I'd filed the damage claim for the mess the movers made of my furniture and Friday afternoon, someone came out to assess what could be fixed. As I closed the door behind the man, I thought, That's the biggest item on the To Do List. It's just going to get better from here.
My upbeat mood lasted about half an hour. That's when I opened my water bill and saw the total: $352.00. That's $300.00 more than it was last month, and since I didn't sprinkle the lawn or wash my car, either they made a mistake or I have a leak somewhere.
But life wasn't done with me yet. Saturday afternoon I hear a thud in the yard and go to the window. I thought maybe the neighbors behind me were taking down a tree between our properties. I wasn't that lucky.
There, lying in the middle of my backyard, is a fallen tree.
It could have been worse. It didn't hit the house and that's what I've been telling myself in order to feel better. It could have been worse. Small comfort.
So now I have to get someone to come out and remove the tree. My optimism on getting a handle on my To Do List faded amid the sarcastic laughter of Life.
Me: I finally have a handle on my To Do List.
Life: LOL. Wait a sec.
I've been feeling overwhelmed with things I need to do since June. Maybe earlier than June, but that's when the stress kicked into high gear with all the house and moving stuff. I tell people that I'm living my life in triage mode--I take care of whatever's bleeding hardest and let the rest slide. It hasn't been fun and then toss in more than a month of insomnia. Just for some extra challenge.
Last Friday, though, I thought things were maybe taking a turn for the better. I'd filed the damage claim for the mess the movers made of my furniture and Friday afternoon, someone came out to assess what could be fixed. As I closed the door behind the man, I thought, That's the biggest item on the To Do List. It's just going to get better from here.
My upbeat mood lasted about half an hour. That's when I opened my water bill and saw the total: $352.00. That's $300.00 more than it was last month, and since I didn't sprinkle the lawn or wash my car, either they made a mistake or I have a leak somewhere.
But life wasn't done with me yet. Saturday afternoon I hear a thud in the yard and go to the window. I thought maybe the neighbors behind me were taking down a tree between our properties. I wasn't that lucky.
There, lying in the middle of my backyard, is a fallen tree.
It could have been worse. It didn't hit the house and that's what I've been telling myself in order to feel better. It could have been worse. Small comfort.
So now I have to get someone to come out and remove the tree. My optimism on getting a handle on my To Do List faded amid the sarcastic laughter of Life.
November 3, 2013
Safety Video Musical
I shared the awesome Air New Zealand safety video here a while back. Here's Virgin America's safety video. No hobbits and in my opinion, Air New Zealand still holds the title of best safety video ever, but this one is still entertaining.
October 31, 2013
NaNoWriMo
For those unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, it stands for National Novel Writing Month. For the 30 days in November, people across the country will try to produce 50,000 words. This will be my sixth year participating--if I remember correctly--and I haven't reached the goal word count yet.
One year I received revisions for a book about three days into the start of NaNoWriMo, but most of the time, it's my own fault. I'm a perfectionist and I can sit and agonize over the right way to phrase something forever. This isn't what NaNoWriMo is about. It's bout writing a fast draft without worrying about plot or characters or word choice and fixing those things later.
Every year I go into it thinking this time I'll change my nature. I will fast draft. I will fix later.
And somewhere along the month, I'll lock up. My innate nature warring against what I need to do to get 50,000 words in 30 days. It gets very discouraging and I wasn't planning to participate this year, but then I thought what the heck? Maybe this year I can do it.
I'm going to try at least.
If you want to join me, you can buddy me at: http://nanowrimo.org/participants/bug...
One year I received revisions for a book about three days into the start of NaNoWriMo, but most of the time, it's my own fault. I'm a perfectionist and I can sit and agonize over the right way to phrase something forever. This isn't what NaNoWriMo is about. It's bout writing a fast draft without worrying about plot or characters or word choice and fixing those things later.
Every year I go into it thinking this time I'll change my nature. I will fast draft. I will fix later.
And somewhere along the month, I'll lock up. My innate nature warring against what I need to do to get 50,000 words in 30 days. It gets very discouraging and I wasn't planning to participate this year, but then I thought what the heck? Maybe this year I can do it.
I'm going to try at least.
If you want to join me, you can buddy me at: http://nanowrimo.org/participants/bug...
October 29, 2013
Crave the Night On Sale!
The ebook version of Crave the Night is on sale for 99 cents! For less than a dollar, you can read four paranormal novellas from four different authors—Michele Hauf, Lori Devoti, Sharon Ashwood, and me!
My story is Enemy Embrace, the fourth installment set in my Blood Feud World. (Each story can stand alone.) The fifth story, Phoenix Burning, will be released January 1, 2014.
Enemy Embrace has a vampire hunter heroine who happens to be half demon and a demon hero and they both want to get their hands on the same vampire.
Some of the others stories have fairies and vampires and mermaids. It's a fun collection and I hope you'll check it out.
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords
My story is Enemy Embrace, the fourth installment set in my Blood Feud World. (Each story can stand alone.) The fifth story, Phoenix Burning, will be released January 1, 2014.
Enemy Embrace has a vampire hunter heroine who happens to be half demon and a demon hero and they both want to get their hands on the same vampire.
Some of the others stories have fairies and vampires and mermaids. It's a fun collection and I hope you'll check it out.
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
Smashwords
October 27, 2013
How Many Countries Are There?
If you play Sporcle.com and find their Countries of the World Quiz, you'll find (at this time) 197 countries. It used to be 196. Other Sporcle quizzes have added additional countries, so are they countries or territories or something else? It all gets confusing. This video kind of explains why.
October 24, 2013
iTunes Radio
This is going to be a very quick post because I'm working on edits for Phoenix Burning and I promised my editor they'd be in her inbox when she arrived at work on Thursday (today).
I finally caved in and downloaded iOS 7. One of the first things I did was try out the new radio station feature. I believe it's free with this latest version of iTunes too.
It's easy to setup. I just went with their pre-existing stations, but I believe you can create your own. I chose four stations.
Overall, I like it. For me, I consider it a plus that there's a buy button on the screen with the price. It's probably going to be bad for my budget, but if I hear a song I like, I don't want to mess around to buy it. Here, I don't have to. One touch shopping.
I like that it is like a radio station and that I didn't have to create a playlist and have it shuffle through it. Sometimes I get tired of some of my playlists and want new music, something I don't already own.
There are two minuses that I've noticed so far. The first, and the biggest one, is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of variety. I've played the same station three days in a row and all three days probably 80% of the songs are ones I' heard yesterday or the day before. That's never happened to me with Pandora.
The other thing I'm not wild about is that there are ads. So far, they've been few and far between, but I don't know if those will increase as Apple moves forward or not. I'd hope they could make enough money on music sales to lose the ads completely. Still, one ad over hours of listening is a satisfactory ratio and I can live with it.
I give it 3.5 stars out of 5. If they get a wider variety of music, I'll bump up my rating.
I finally caved in and downloaded iOS 7. One of the first things I did was try out the new radio station feature. I believe it's free with this latest version of iTunes too.
It's easy to setup. I just went with their pre-existing stations, but I believe you can create your own. I chose four stations.
Overall, I like it. For me, I consider it a plus that there's a buy button on the screen with the price. It's probably going to be bad for my budget, but if I hear a song I like, I don't want to mess around to buy it. Here, I don't have to. One touch shopping.
I like that it is like a radio station and that I didn't have to create a playlist and have it shuffle through it. Sometimes I get tired of some of my playlists and want new music, something I don't already own.
There are two minuses that I've noticed so far. The first, and the biggest one, is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of variety. I've played the same station three days in a row and all three days probably 80% of the songs are ones I' heard yesterday or the day before. That's never happened to me with Pandora.
The other thing I'm not wild about is that there are ads. So far, they've been few and far between, but I don't know if those will increase as Apple moves forward or not. I'd hope they could make enough money on music sales to lose the ads completely. Still, one ad over hours of listening is a satisfactory ratio and I can live with it.
I give it 3.5 stars out of 5. If they get a wider variety of music, I'll bump up my rating.
October 22, 2013
Phoenix Burning Cover Reveal
Okay, so maybe it isn't a earth-shaking, top secret cover reveal. I found it on Amazon and anyone who was looking at Phoenix Burning would have seen it. I'm thinking of it more like the big Apple announcement today. All those photos of the new iPad have already leaked out and the show is more of a show and tell.
If you'd like to see how I envisioned the hero and heroine as well as some other pictures I worked with as I was writing, visit my Phoenix Burning board on Pinterest.
If you'd like to see how I envisioned the hero and heroine as well as some other pictures I worked with as I was writing, visit my Phoenix Burning board on Pinterest.
October 20, 2013
Art Comes to Life
I've always wanted to draw like this, but I'd never have the patience to do it. Watch how many different pens, pencils, markers and paints this guy uses to create a very realistic package. It's awesome!
October 17, 2013
What Art Can Do
Years ago, I bought a print for my parents' house that showed Don Quixote on horseback holding a spear and carrying a shield. With him is Sancho Panza. It's done in abstract and the original work was done by Pablo Picasso. You can see the print at All Posters if you're interested.
It's done in black and white, there's no color involved, but something about it grabbed me.
The funny thing is that while I've always liked the print, I didn't realize it was Don Quixote for a really, really long time. Call me slow, I know. It wasn't until I saw The Man From La Mancha while I was in New York for a Romance Writers of America conference in 2003 that I realized just who and what the print represented.
Suddenly, the print took on new meaning for me. Don Quixote, tilting at windmills, dreaming the Impossible Dream. No longer was it just an interesting drawing, now it had a story.
Maybe it's because I'm a writer. Maybe it's because I'm a dreamer. ::shrug:: But the story in The Man From La Mancha spoke to me.
When I moved, I asked my parents if I could take that print with me. I knew exactly where I wanted to put it in my new home. They let me and it's up right outside my bedroom. Sometimes I don't see it at all because of how familiar it is, but on other days, I walk past it and it speaks to me.
On different days it gives me different messages. Sometimes I remember the trip to New York and to Broadway to see the play. Sometimes I remember the conference and signing copies of Ravyn's Flight (now available in ebook!), the first time I ever autographed books. Sometimes I think about Don Quixote, living in his own world and making others strive to be better than they were. Like Aldonza (AKA Dulcinea). Sometimes I think of other aspects of the story.
The bottom line, though, is that this one piece of art can say so many things. Some of the associations are of my own making, but some come courtesy of Picasso and Miguel de Cervantes and that's pretty darn cool.
It's done in black and white, there's no color involved, but something about it grabbed me.
The funny thing is that while I've always liked the print, I didn't realize it was Don Quixote for a really, really long time. Call me slow, I know. It wasn't until I saw The Man From La Mancha while I was in New York for a Romance Writers of America conference in 2003 that I realized just who and what the print represented.
Suddenly, the print took on new meaning for me. Don Quixote, tilting at windmills, dreaming the Impossible Dream. No longer was it just an interesting drawing, now it had a story.
Maybe it's because I'm a writer. Maybe it's because I'm a dreamer. ::shrug:: But the story in The Man From La Mancha spoke to me.
When I moved, I asked my parents if I could take that print with me. I knew exactly where I wanted to put it in my new home. They let me and it's up right outside my bedroom. Sometimes I don't see it at all because of how familiar it is, but on other days, I walk past it and it speaks to me.
On different days it gives me different messages. Sometimes I remember the trip to New York and to Broadway to see the play. Sometimes I remember the conference and signing copies of Ravyn's Flight (now available in ebook!), the first time I ever autographed books. Sometimes I think about Don Quixote, living in his own world and making others strive to be better than they were. Like Aldonza (AKA Dulcinea). Sometimes I think of other aspects of the story.
The bottom line, though, is that this one piece of art can say so many things. Some of the associations are of my own making, but some come courtesy of Picasso and Miguel de Cervantes and that's pretty darn cool.
October 15, 2013
No Arizona
I've talked before about how my characters choose their own names and how I get no say in the matter. I can change their surnames if I need to--they don't seem to be as dead set on those--but first names? No way.
I used to complain about this until I had one heroine who did let me pick her name. It was miserable. I spent weeks and weeks looking at all my name books and at a bazillion online naming sites. After that experience, I conceded. Life is easier if I let them tell me who they are.
And yet I still had this conversation with a heroine of mine recently. Maybe I haven't quite learned my lesson.
At first I think it's me, not able to mentally make the change yet. Then I see her expression. My name is Arizona, she says.
I sigh and surrender. Arizona it is.
I used to complain about this until I had one heroine who did let me pick her name. It was miserable. I spent weeks and weeks looking at all my name books and at a bazillion online naming sites. After that experience, I conceded. Life is easier if I let them tell me who they are.
And yet I still had this conversation with a heroine of mine recently. Maybe I haven't quite learned my lesson.
Me: You can't go with Arizona. I have another heroine named Phoenix and her story is written. We have to change your name. How about Ariel? It's close to Arizona.
Heroine: I'm not a Disney princess.
Me: That can be part of your internal conflict. Your parents wanted a Disney princess and they got a scientist instead.
Heroine: (silence)I take her silence as agreement. I envision how this conflict between who she is and who her parents want her to be influences her life and her choices. I start to make notes, but I can't write Ariel. Every time I write her name it comes out as Arizona.
At first I think it's me, not able to mentally make the change yet. Then I see her expression. My name is Arizona, she says.
I sigh and surrender. Arizona it is.
