And now for this message from...Fall

Wishin' I was there.

Tomorrow starts August, one more month of full on summer. At least I plan to spend a few days of that at a beach, which somehow makes the heat bearable.

After a mind-numbing month hacking away at my historical novellas, one of which still isn't finished, I got a bit of a creative rush the other day and I've started on a new single title, for which, up until now, I only HAD a title for.

I'm trying to do a 'fast draft' of the story so I can get the important points on paper and then work most of it out in the editing phase, since that's really where my strength lies.

Off to brain storm and dream of colorful leaves and crisp chilly air tinged with the essence of wood smoke...

Gossip is expensive

No, I'm not talking about a certain publisher having a hissy fit over authors publicly complaining about their policies. [I'll save that rant for another time]

I'm talking about gossip rags - those newspaper print magazines that you see in the foodstore and the drug store by the checkout counter claiming Elvis has landed in someone's back yard, or the president secretly confessed to having a Martian love child...or the ones of a slightly higher caliber that show blurry candid shots of celebrities looking almost like normal people sporting bad hair and cellulite with captions like: Mega-star admits to wild night with hamsters; Pop princess intends to marry mountain gorilla; raid on brothel snares televangelist [oh wait, that one's usually true]....

Anyway, the other night I went to Walgreens to pick up some magazines to keep me occupied during the long wait while my Dad had surgery. [He's doing okay.]

I was appalled at how much these toss away magazines cost! They want $4.00 an issue! I thought gossip was cheap. After all, most of it is made up, the photos are retouched, computer generated, airbrushed - the stuff the regular magazines won't buy from the papparazzi. The articles consist of a few lines of inflammatory prose aimed at churning up the ire of celebrities and fans alike. You know, lawsuit fodder.

I don't normally buy them, which was why I figured $10 would get me half a dozen or so that I could peruse during the mind numbing hours spent in the CSICU waiting room. Nah. Two of them cost me over $8.00. I couldn't believe it.

Junk food is usually cheap so people will be more tempted to buy it than healthy food. Shouldn't junk journalism be cheap too?

The Liberation of a Laptop

I got a laptop this weekend.

I'd been wanting one not because I felt the need to be connected wherever I went, but because I wanted some way to disconnect from my regular computer and still be able to get work done.

I don't know if that makes any sense or not, but I find my desktop computer to sometimes be more of a distraction than anything. With e-mail and Internet, I'm always too tempted to go surfing, or chat, or check message boards and find a I waste a lot of time. I wanted a way to work efficiently without the constant possibility of connecting to the outside world [or inner space, I suppose].

So now I can work on the computer away from the computer, which is sort of ironic, but if it boosts my efficiency it's worth it.

We'll see how it goes. Next I'll need something to separate me from the temptation of using my laptop.

Whovians Kree!

Tonight on the Sci-Fi Channel begins the two part Season Finale of Dr. Who starring David Tennant as the 10th Doctor. If you're a fan, don't miss it. It has a little bit of everything, including some Captain Jack.

My take on contests

Today I'm over at Star Crossed Romance talking about entering writing contests. Visit me over there for a judge's POV.

Bloggin' Lite

During the summer, I'm lucky I can function at all, so you may have noticed my blogging has been a bit vegetarian lately.

Between being bogged down by the heat, the abundance of kids in the house, the abundance of writing projects that seem to be stagnating and other various blockages in the river of life, I'm going with the quick visual when it comes to blogging.

For today, this is something DD sent me which sums up her attitude about math, as well as my current attitude about life.

Are you a Horrible fan? I am

Because Joss Whedon is my master.

For 45 minutes of odd and yet strangely unusual entertainment, check out Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog.

You must hurry, though. From what I understand it won't be available for long.

Stop back and let me know what you think.

Combatting the summer blahs

I'll be pretending I'm here.

If you pretend you're there too, we can meet up for drinks under the palm tree.

Mood Brightener

Just thought everybody could use one of these today.

Dueling weird dreams

This morning the first thing DH says to me is: I had the weirdest dream.

I held up a hand and replied: Wait, before you say anything, can your dream top this?

I had a dream about watching a dancing cello ensemble [yes, two dozen men dancing and playing cellos] led by Edward James Olmos [Commander Adama].

As if that wasn't odd enough, afterward, I went to a restaurant where the bathroom was accessed through the oven. When they closed the kitchen down, they closed the bathroom down too. The mean waitress refused to let me order pastrami on rye [which I don't even like] but I was mad that I couldn't have it.

DH was silent for a bit, then he launched into his tale of joining the presidental election campaign in Washington and bringing the dog with us. At one point he took Saber to Burger King and bought him four whoppers.

I said: That's not your dream. That's the dog's dream. You must be channeling him.

Nevertheless, I still win.

Doin' the Happy Dance!

My dryer is fixed! It only took a WEEK!

Ah, warm, fluffy towels at LAST!!

Learning from the master

Saber started the trend of lying with his back paws against the love seat and doing some strange yoga pose with his back.

Apparently he's taught this move to Topper. [The dark spot in the fist picture is Topper as a kitten, obviously taking notes while Saber demonstrates the 'love seat' technique.]

*******

Don't forget to stop by my WEBSITE for details on my Wolfsbane contest!

New Contest!

To celebrate the release of Wolfsbane 2: Leader of the Pack on August 3rd from Amber Quill Press, I’m having a contest!

To enter, stop by my WEBSITE, read the short excerpt of Wolfsbane 2 posted on my contest page, then e-mail me the answer to the following question:

What percentage [or fraction] of werewolf blood does Vance Garrison possess?

Send your answer to jcolgan@newoa.com with WOLFSBANE CONTEST as the subject.

Randomly chosen winner will receive a free download of Wolfsbane: Aspect of the Wolf by Jennifer Colgan and a $5.00 Amber Quill Gift Certificate.

Winner must be 18 years or older to participate and will be announced on August 3rd 2008.

Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop, Pop...Pop, Pop, Pop...

No, that's not the sound of champagne in celebration of a multibook deal.

It's the incessant sound of neighborhood fireworks. Sigh.

At the risk of sounding un-patriotic, can I just say, enough already??

Seriously. Let me explain. I live in New Jersey where fireworks are ILLEGAL. You must have a professional license to set off a fireworks display, and the average citizen is not allowed to buy and/or use fireworks of any kind at any time of the year.

This law stops no one.

We have neighbors who start the pop-pop-popping around July 1st and don't stop until sometime close to August when their illegal supply runs out. Likely they hop over the border to Pennsylvania where they're happy to sell fireworks to New Jerseyans. Make sense? Yeah. No.

Now, as much as I hate firecrackers [I like actually fireworks displays as much as the next person] I can tolerate the INCESSANT percussive noise for a little while on the Fourth of July because hey, people THINK they're being patriotic by breaking the law and disturbing the peace.

Unfortunately when people start at 4:00 PM and don't stop until after 11:00 PM [did I mention it's ILLEGAL??] it wears a little thin after about the sixth straight hour of pop, pop, POP - followed by bang, bang, BANG!

To my neighbors, who at all other times of the year pretty much keep to themselves and don't bother me, I say:

GIVE IT A REST!!

Doesn't it get tiring after a while? Don't you run out of matches? Don't your ears hurt? How about stopping for dinner, or a potty break? How much money did you spend on fireworks anyway?? Hundreds? Thousands? Do you ever sleep? For heaven's sake, people - take a break and let the rest of us finish a thought without being inter--pop, pop, POP!

Happy 4th!

Sexy Comments & Profile Graphics

Enjoy the weekend!

Always waitin' for something...

Today it's the dryer repairman. I have a service window between 8:00 AM and 12:00 PM which means, since I got up early, he'll be here at 11:59 OR I'll get a call at 11:59 that he's running late.

Unfortunately I cannot live without a dryer. The amount of laundry I do is staggering [which is probably why the dryer went ca-chunk, ca-chunk, thunk...ahhh thunk on Sunday night and then stopped working] and without drilling holes in various structures in my yard, I don't have any place to hang an emergency clothesline, so the bathrooms are full of towels hanging on hangers. Do you know how long it takes for a towel to air dry? FOR.EVER.

So here I sit, watching the street, twiddling my thumbs and dreaming of the moment I can pull a nice, fluffy warm towel out of the dryer.

8:39 AM UPDATE: I spoke too soon. The repairman came at 8:15, told me the dryer belt was brken, shredded was more like it, and that it could take four days or so to get a replacement. AAAAAGHHG! So I'm off to my Mom's to do some essential laundry.

Farewell to another George

Actor Don S. Davis who portrayed General George Hammond on Stargate SG-1 passed away at the age of 65.

I credit Mr. Davis with actually getting me interested in Stargate because the first time I found an episode while scanning channels one evening, I saw him and said - Oh, there's Scully's father! [He also played Dana Scully's father on the X-Files]. I wanted to see what Captain William Scully was doing on some other show.

My condolences to Mr. Davis's family and to the cast and crew of Stargate SG-1 who I'm sure will miss him terribly.

In other news: I'm also over at Star-Crossed Romance today talking about promo. Drop by for my acerbic opinion on that subject.