updates
Current mood: accomplished
Category: Writing and Poetry

Hi there!  Just getting ready to start edits on the second book of my medieval trilogy - which might be a series, if the editor likes, lol.  There's a reason I gave Celestia so many siblings!!

I am really in a quandary over promotion - I know that I'm supposed to be getting into getting my name out there - but HOW? lol

Have a great day - and drop me any tips you have on far-reaching promo

Traci

2:00 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Get Lost
Current mood: content
Category: Travel and Places

Have you ever gotten lost trying to find something as big as, say, a waterfall?

I have a thing for road trips (in case you haven't guessed, lol)  and so being a mere three hundred miles away from Seattle – which is just over a few, eh hem, mountains from Spokane – I grabbed my girls (Trena, Tae and Destini) and got in the van.

A good friend (Yo Cherry!) lives o'er the mountain, so I figured, why not go just so that we can say that we drove from coast to coast – literally?

All of this is cool and blogworthy stuff – but it occurred to me, as I was wandering my way through the back woods of Issaquah ( an hour out of the way and in the completely wrong direction) that it takes a certain type of person to hit the road.

Cheezy analogies are running rampant through my head, so I'll try and stay away from them – but no promises

Getting in the car for a road trip requires a sense of adventure.  For me, as the driver, I feel like I am in control of my own life.  As the passenger, I feel like I am embarking on a journey that is taking me somewhere else. Sometimes somewhere 'else' is just the perfect place to be.

Being in the car is like giving your mind time off for strenuous behavior.  When you are listening to music (super-cranked!) and singing, or if you are listening to a book on tape, you don't have to think.  Snaking roads require a different type of concentration than editing or writing or child rearing. It is you and the road.

Great conversations can happen in the car, and you have to be open to them. While someone (we won't name names, lol) is telling you that hey, by the way, they just barely passed French with a D…you have the opportunity to strangle the steering wheel instead of the person confessing.  Sometimes it is easier to say important things while looking out the window as the scenery passes, while we wait to hear what the other person says back.  Because you are both doing something else, in the same space, there is less pressure to react in the expected way.

Most importantly, you have to be the type of person who is willing to enjoy the side trips.  My friend Rhonda and I used to get lost (pre GPS days) and we had the best time finding a McDonalds and getting a cheeseburger Happy Meal before making our way back to the freeway.  We never stressed – we ate fries and finished off our diet cokes while talking about STUFF – all that talking is probaby why we got off track in the first place, lol.

Side trips. I wanted to see Snoqualamie Falls. Why this was important is completely and totally unimportant. I thought it was right off the freeway – that the Falls would be marked so that tourists could find them. Well – we missed it on the way over toward Seattle, so we were looking out with Eagle Eyes on the way back to Spokane. We zipped off at the first exit that said Snoqualamie Falls. We immediatly had to choose left or right. Again, there were no signs, but a lot of people were going right.

We went right.

Right into Tiger Mountain.  Road construction made turning around impossible and while there were plenty of places to pull over and put on your chains, lol, getting off the damn mountain wasn't going to happen until you went down the other side. We discovered pockets of Issaquah that the natives probably don't know about. We laughed, the girls fell asleep, and Trena and I talked – important stuff that it's hard to get into with all the chaos in our lives. An hour later, we were back on the freeway, pretty much where we'd started.

I didn't care – in an era when friendships are more cyber than face to face, I'd gotten another hour with my best friend.  The girls woke up, we tanked the sappy conversation and  loaded up the iPods - and got down to the serious business of singing off key. J

So. Traits required to travel with moi: Bladder large enough for five diet cokes and a latte before stopping, the ability to call out "oops, we missed our exit" while laughing and dialing one's significant other for a mapquest boost. You don't have to sing well, but you must be loud and act like you know all of the words. And most of all, you have to have FUN. No whining or I swear you'll be dropped off at the nearest gas station

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Traci

1:58 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

May Day
Current mood: content

May Day.

Remember that old poem? Hooray, hooray, the first of May

Outdoor (fill in the blank) - ing begins today!

There is the pagan ritual of dancing around the Maypole, and crowning a Queen Of May.  There are May baskets, a nicer version of ding-dong-ditch. Yes, you ring the doorbell and leave flowers on someone's doorstep.  Much much nicer than an egg to the face, or dog doo on the porch.

Of course, there is also Mayday, Mayday, Mayday! I sign of distress and a call for help it's actally French - m'aidez, meaning "help me."  It needs to be used three times in a row to distinguish the phrase from anything else - we'd hate to confuse this emergency cry for, well, "hey day, Medday, how day?"

That's it for the language lesson! I hope you all have a Merry Merry Month of May

8:24 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Open Discussion - what are you reading?
Current mood: creative
Category: Writing and Poetry

Hi! when I was listing my favorite authors, and got a wrist cramp, cause I have so many, I was wondering what other people were reading? Is everybody pretty much sold on Secrets? Or James Patterson?  Today Lauren Barnholt has a new release, if you are looking for a Teen read.  I love books - I love finding new authors that draw me in - so spill it - who are you reading??

1:45 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Omen Rocked!

Excellent decapitation, good suspense - but if you've seen the classic origanal, well, not a lot of surprises, right?

Still GREAT re-make!

Yeah!

Traci

5:07 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

THE OMEN

You'll have to check back to see how the movie is - but I can't wait to go! Gore, adrenalin rush, a re-make can go too far with the blood and guts to try and get past the old-fashioned suspense. And lets face it - The Omen is a classic.

I'm taking a van full of teens and we are off to put Ebert to shame - you'll get nothing but the most honest critique ever.

Promise, bwahhahahahahaha

Traci

6:23 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

zoo x 2
Current mood: busy

I already did this once today - but hey, I can do it again - I know that you'll find my re-cap of the Palm Beach Zoo fabulously riveting, lol.

Seriously, went to the zoo - me, my hubby and five teens who acted like teenagers (soda spitting, yodeling through the fake rain forest, that kind of thing) and had a great time. I mean, it could have been better if I didn't have sweat dripping down my back from the heat, but the freaky monkey who walked like a short, hairy man made it all worth while - we realized just how close we were to that evolutional chain. Once we got past the sci-fi-ness of it, we did a comparison of men versus monkey.  I thought for sure the monkey would pull ahead with 'scratching one's butt in public', but nope - it was a tie.

when was the last time you went to the zoo? What's your favorite animal?

11:38 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

Whats goin' on?
Current mood: crazy

Kicking and screaming, okay maybe a little crying, but here I am in the land of myspacers. Went to a huge conference in Daytona (rock it, those Mr. Romance Guys) and found out that this place, this unique hotbed of everybody doing their own thing, is THE place to find out what's going on. So. Being nosy, right, I want to know. Send me comments on WHAT IS GOING ON!!!!

1:08 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment