Category: Stuff About Me

Halloween Costumes I Have Been

I used to be known as quite the Halloween costume designer—and Halloween party-giver for grown-ups. I had to give up the parties when My Liege and I were forced to refinish our hardwood living room floors one year because all that dancing in high heels (those of my guests, I assure you) was not friendly to our 40-year-old wood floors and also because one of my guests BROKE MY CLARINET!! The clarinet I’d had since grade seven and proudly displayed on my fireplace mantel even though I couldn’t remember how to play it any more. After several months passed and I received confirmation that it was, um, Moi who dropped the clarinet, I decided it was time to grow up.

First up, the perfect group Halloween costume for a young family, very easy to make (if I can do it, so can you), and inspired by a lack of ANY Halloween costumes for sale in the tiny logging town where we lived at the time:

The Wrigley’s Gum Family!

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Measure family members and buy appropriate lengths of broadcloth in Juicy Fruit Yellow and Doublemint green (if can’t find shade of Doublemint green, fake it like I did). HINT: A cotton diaper works wonderfully for the baby’s costume.
  2. Sew tubes to fit bodies.
  3. Use felt pens and/or cut out and sew letters onto broadcloth, depending on how dark your background is. Draw very straight, and remember, if I can do it, so can you!
  4. Sew on shoulder straps. HINT: If you’re breastfeeding, make sure straps attach to costume with snaps—very handy.
  5. Create silver gum crowns out of cardboard and tin foil.
  6. Go forth and elicit oohs and ahhs.

Second, another easy group costume:

The Three Witches of Macbeth!

INSTRUCTIONS:

  1. Locate two friends who’ll agree to play the Three Witches of Macbeth with you, as long as you guarantee that should a device called a Blog ever come into existence, you will not post their photos.
  2. Agree that each of you will memorize your assigned parts of the “Bubble, bubble, boil and trouble” (or whatever it is) speech in the play. Provide your two fellow witches with photocopies of the scene so they have no excuse not to memorize it!
  3. Have the good grace to have been born a brunette. If you’re not a brunette, dye your hair.
  4. Grow hair as long as you can and get a spiral perm (Yes, you can always buy a wig, if you’re not, you know, truly committed to Halloween).
  5. Spray white Halloween paint on your hair in streaks.
  6. Dress as witch. HINT: If you have a huge zit on your chin, cover it up with wart makeup.
  7. Include hat but forget to wear it in pictures.
  8. Create witch’s brew.
  9. Note that carrot in brew does NOT represent anything other than a carrot, so advise guests to get their minds out of the gutter.
  10. Try as hard as you can to forgive the other two witches when they DON’T MEMORIZE THEIR LINES!!! (Agh, does no one take Halloween seriously?)
  11. Repeat the three witches speech several times throughout the evening all on your lonesome.

So, what have some of your favorite Halloween costumes been?

Tomorrow – Halloween Costumes I Have Been or Created for Others to Be That Are Not Recommended.

New Chapters

The WordPress dashboard tells me I have exactly 100 posts on my blog now. Yay, me. Congratulate me on my milestone. I guess that makes this post #101.

Sigh. I’m still feeling very unsettled in the wake of Eldest Son’s departure to university, especially after investigating flight costs and realizing it would cost something like $400 after taxes and surcharges to bring him home for Canadian Thanksgiving (usually around October 10th). And the flight is under an hour! Holy price-gouging, Batman. E.S. said when we parted that he was fully prepared not to come home until Christmas, and you can bet I’m springing the bucks for that two-week holiday. But two nights? We shall see… (In the event you all think I’m heartless, I do have a friend in his university town with two kids he grew up with who would ensure he was well taken care of).

Just before leaving to take E.S. to university, I wrapped up a chapter on the WIP that left me firmly in the middle of the book with a major turning point and a hook. You’d think the next chapter and scene would be a breeze to write, then, huh? Um, not so much. I have a lot of fast-drafted scenes for this story, and I’ve spent the last couple of days (after re-reading those first 12 chapters to plant my brain in the story again) physically moving the drafted scenes around in the manuscript, trying to strike the right balance between plot, mystery, development of romance, and characterization. I think what I’ve moved makes sense, and it’s time to begin revising the first of the two transferred scenes and see if I’m right.

Often, when I begin a new chapter or even a new scene, I walk around in a haze for a day or two, during which I feel super-anxious. I know the brain is churning, and in a way I can actually feel it churning. The churning is the anxiety (some might call it creativity). Right behind my forehead. Agh! Every time this happens, I curse my writing process, but I shouldn’t curse it, I should embrace it. It appears I need to go through the churning in order to successfully write and plot the next few scenes. I often blame this process on Elle Muse, because she’s the one standing inside my head laughing at my bruised forehead! However, she’s also the one doing all the work right now.

And you thought being a writer was all fun and games. Think again. It’s freakin’ hard work.

Well, there you go. I’ve begun a new chapter of my life with E.S. leaving home, and I’m beginning not only a new chapter of my WIP but a new direction, thanks to that major turning point. Wish me luck. For the next week or so, I’m pretty sure I’ll need it.

08-08-08 — And Conference Pictures

Oooh, I think I’ve mentioned before that I love eights. I know my blog defaults the date to August 8, 2008, so I had to bring attention to the triple eights in the blog title. Note that I also set the blog to post at 8:08 a.m.! Yes, I’m obsessive, but only in a nice way, I assure you.

Today, as promised, I’m posting pictures of Conference. First up, the ChickLit party, held Wednesday night at Annabelle’s Bar and Bistro in the Mosser Hotel across the street from the Marriott (the conference hotel).

Left to Right, Heather Roth, Kelli Estes, and Christina Arbini.

I first met Heather at the ChickLit party in Dallas last year. However, she was Heather Dodge then. Now she’s wearing a bunch of sparkly on her finger that has transmorphed her into Roth. Why is Heather so memorable, you ask? Because she convinced myself and Lexi Connor, among others, to imbibe in Lemon Drops at the bar in Dallas last year until the ungodly hours of the morning. I stayed up way too late and had to wake up at 6 the next morning for a group breakfast. Heather did not get me in her clutches this year, although I was tempted. The tiredness from this damn summer cold was already creeping in.

Kelli is a new ChickLit chapter member and Christina is a member of the Dancing Divas, from way back in Reno (you had to be there).

Thursday Pictures:

Moi and Kathleen Irene Paterka

Kathleen was nice enough to buy a copy of Penny’s first book at the Literacy Autographing for a friend. Kathleen and I have known each other in email for years—how nice to put a face to a name.

 With my Red Sage editor, Theresa Stevens, at the Red Sage Coffee Mixer.

Fellow Red Sage authors, Leigh Court and Mia Varano.

Mia Varano with publisher Alexandria Kendall at the Red Sage author dinner held at Roy’s. Yum!

Mia and I also had dinner together on Tuesday night, plus she made me walk all the way to the Coit Tower Wednesday morning, earning Moi a tiny blister on my pinky toe of right foot that required band-aids for the duration of conference. Bad, bad Mia. However, I must confess, it was my idea to visit the Coit Tower. But! It was her idea to walk. 😉

Friday:

Amber Quill Author Dinner: Karin Story, Natalie Damschroder, and Karin’s mom!

Karin is my editor at Amber Quill. Yes, she’s responsible for the brilliance of my books! Actually, I’m responsible, but she keeps me on the straight and narrow (you didn’t think I’d let her hog all the credit, did you?). Natalie is a fellow Amber Quill author I’ve known on the loops for years. She’s also a fellow Capricorn, which naturally endears her to Moi.

Fellow Amber Quill authors Linda McLaughlin and Caitlyn Willows.

Note that I sport the same squishy-eyed grin in every photo!

I really missed catching up with my buddy, Jamie Sobrato. We were supposed to have dinner Saturday night, but she fell ill and had to cancel. Sob. I did run across her a few times during the conference, but I’m used to seeing her a lot at conference, so now I’m suffering Jamie Withdrawal. Anyone have a cure?

Thanks also to my roomie, Natale Stenzel, for putting up with me (or was that the other way around?) Heh, heh. 

Evil Entity Update

Some of you will remember my struggle with the Evil Entity using my kitchen-door garden for her catbox. I am happy to report that after several weeks of experimentation, she is no longer going in the garden! How did I accomplish this monumental feat? Well, first I tried putting black pepper in the garden. She dug it up. Then I followed a friend’s advice and covered the soil areas with cut-up rose thorns. She booted them out. FINALLY, after planting marigolds and lobelia, I covered every square inch of soil I could find with bits of bark and sticks and a sprinkler and a digging implement and two old peony cages:

No more cat crap!

Success! Granted, I also had to resort to putting a litter box in the carport. Last week, fairly confident that I had her carport-litter-box-trained, I removed the rigamarole from the garden. Whereupon she began using it as a litter box again! Argh. Is my garden destined to look so, um, cluttered for the rest of the summer?

I am sad to report that my marigolds either hate the Evil Entity’s “leftovers” or the record-breaking temperatures from the end of June fried them, because, as of this past weekend, ONLY ONE BLOOM REMAINED from six or seven plants. Sob. So I pulled them out and planted geraniums and some other little pink flower whose name I can’t recall at the moment. The lobelia, however, are going strong (everything is in the baby stage in the pic above, so you can’t really see the lobelia blooming—just take my word for it, because My Liege is out of town and he took the camera).

What does the Evil Entity think of all of this?

“Kiss My Paw, Submissive Human.”

Allie McBeagle’s reaction:

Pure exhaustion!

Did anyone else lose flowers to scorching temperatures this summer? Or must I admit that I have a brown thumb?

By the way, see that maple in the background of the picture of the Evil Entity? It’s now minus two massive branches, courtesy of a recent freak windstorm that also took out three fence boards and smashed the lantern at the end of the driveway.

Egad. Nostradamus said I’d have days like this…

Just Beachy

My Liege and I were determined to spend July 4th on the lake, come rain or shine. Luckily, it didn’t rain, although at first we thought it might. Clouds hovered until the afternoon, when the sun finally broke free.

I was forced to take a self-portrait…

Because My Liege was reading… (There he is, at the very end of the left dock).

Who am I to interrupt such a worthy endeavor?

Note to Self: When holding camera so close to own face, nose looks enormous…

Behold, my photography skills:

“Choppy Waters, with Feet”

How did you spend your July 4th weekend?

Cutest Baby MeMe

In honor of Dadbert’s birthday yesterday, I’m starting a meme. Anyone with a blog can play. Here’s how it goes. I’m posting a “Cutest Baby” picture on my blog. I’m not tagging anyone. If you want to play, here are the rules:

  1. Post a “Cutest Baby” picture to your own blog.

  2. Link back to my blog (or the blog of whomever/wherever you first see the Cutest Baby MeMe…you know, after they get it from me.)

  3. Include a link to your “Cutest Baby” picture in the Comments trail of this blog post, so I can easily hop over and ooh and ahh over the baby picture. In return, I expect you to ooh and aah over the picture I’m posting.

  4. Explain why you think the baby in your picture is deserving.

  5. The baby in your picture can not be you.

  6. The baby in your picture must be a relative.

  7. Repeat the rules on your blog if you want others to pick up the MeMe.

Ready, Set? Go!

dadbaby.jpg

I’m nominating Dadbert (naturally). Why? You have to ask? Look at those lips!! That cute little Three Stooges hairdo! The year was 1932, maybe 1933, depending how old he is in the photo (I’m guessing he was around six months, which puts the photo date around December ’32 or January/February ’33).

Dadbert is deserving of “Cutest Baby” because he has a perfect “Depression Era Pout.” I’m not sure, but looking at the picture, I think it was taken by a professional, but we’re talking 75 years ago, folks, so that’s ONE DARN CUTE BABY.

Show me yours!