What's in a name?

I've been thinking lately about how important a character's name is to a book. I don't know how many times I've picked up a book, and read the back and put the book down because I couldn't deal with the names of either the hero or the heroine.

For example, heroes named Rio or Draco don't do it for me. Also English lords named Hunter, Derek or Blake. Primarily because I don't know that many Englishmen currently who are named Hunter or Blake. Derek tends to be primarily a middle or lower class name, not one commonly used by the aristocracy in England at any time. I totally understand wanting to give your hero or heroine a unique name, but you have to deal with the fact that it is unique in a book.

Names can also inform the characterisitics of your character. If you give your heroine a strong name, it's hard to make her a meek, little lamb. Also, geeks aren't usually given strong masculine names.

I think alot about names when I'm writing a book and what the character's name means. For example, my first name is Elizabeth which is from the Hebrew and means 'consecrated or given to God.' Which fits me because I've often felt that I'm an incredibly spiritual person. I still have a school report that says that I had a sophisticated take on the Bible when I was 6. When it comes to religion, I've always been ant-established religion. I don't think you need a priest or a minister to feel close to God.

My middle name is Kerri, which apparently means dark and mysterious. It's of Celtic origin. Of course, I like to think of myself as being dark and mysterious, and not just because of my name!

My father's name was Victor, which is Latin and means 'winner, conqueror.' I don't know if my sweet, good-natured Father was a conqueror per se, except of my mother's heart! My mom was Roslyn is a derivation of Rosalind which means pretty rose or horse serpent. WTF? My mother could certainly be consiered a pretty rose, and she did have some pretty sharp thorns.

Whenever, I start a book and I'm thinking of names, I always look up the meaning of the name. I find that it's helpful. For instance, Julia in Nearly Famous. Julia means youthful, and my character definitely is youthful. She's constantly going up for roles against an actress who is 7 years younger than her, and she's often asked to audition for teenagers.

I chose the name Emma for my newest WIP, partly because Emma is my favorite Jane Austen novel, and partly for Emma Goldman, the radical feminist anarchist of the late 19th and early twentieth century. To my surprise, the definition of Emma means universal, all-embracing which works because both my Emma and Emma Goldman are earthy, all-embracing women. My Emma embraces all aspects of her multi-racial identity.

Now for my YA, I've chosen the name Jessica for my protagonist. Jessica means God's Grace, and the character will hopefully embody that. She'll be my first blonde heroine, that's for sure.

While I was looking up names, I thought I would find out the meaning of several other names that are famous right now.

Brittany: strong, industrious (makes sense, she's worked hard for her success)
Russell: red head (I'm sure Russell Crowe would like a more masculine definition!)
Angelina: Little Angel (LOL, I don't know if anyone could call Angelina Jolie a little angel!)
Paris: Greek, means downfall (Hmm, Paris Hilton you might not want to marry another Paris)
Gwyneth: Welsh, Fortunate, Blessed (Well, she certainly has been that)
Brad: English, Broad Meadow (I'm not sure what exactly that means)
Jennifer: Welsh, White Wave (So Jennifer's White Wave drowned Brad's Broad Meadow?)
Renee: French, Re-born (so we don't have to worry about Renee Zwellweger, she'll be fine)

How do you choose your character's names?

Dragging My Feet

Man, I am so tired today. I had literally 3 hours of sleep last night. Why you might ask? Well, last night at work, I had to watch this BBC/Discovery Channel show called Top Grear. If you're not familiar with this show, let me give you a brief description. It's about cars. Yes, cars, the entire show they talk about cars.

Now, I'm a New Yorker. I don't have a driver's license, although I keep meaning to get one, and cars don't interest me in the slightest apart from a mode of transportation. So this show was not on my top 100 list of shows to watch.

What made it worse, was the fact that I had to log in everytime someone mentioned a fricking car, and they mentioned at least 25 different makes and brands. It turned out we only had to write 9 questions, thank god. Oh yeah, I had two other people working with me on this show, because it's so brand heavy they need at least 2 to 3 people to catch all of them. See above. That's a Bentley Continental, one of the cars that I had to write about. These babies used cost over a hundred thousand dollars. Used!

Slick chick that I am, I offered to log in all the products into the system, while the two guys I was working with started on the questions, which meant that in the end I only ended up having to write 2. Yippee! Still, although the show was over by 11, by the time we got done it was 1;30, and the trains don't really run regularly at that time, so I didn't get home until quarter of 3, and then I had to get up at 6 for work, so I'm dragging.

Plus, I'm off caffeine for the next few days, which has given me a lovely headache to remember it by. So I'm cheating a little with this post. Johanna Edwards had a great list on her site last Friday, so I'm paying it forward.

The Hate List

So here, in no particular order, are the people who do not contribute to my well-being or amusement:

1. Fabio (Enough already)
2. Johnny Fairplay
3. Omarosa (someone stop her before she breeds)
4. Star Jones Reynolds
5. Elisabeth Hasselbeck
6. Tom Cruise
7. The Wanna Fanta Girls (could they be more annoying)
8. Mary Hart
9. Janice Dickinson (crazy and pyschotic)
10. Donald Trump
11. Martha Stewart
12. Bill O'Reilly
13. Tucker Carlson
14. Ann Coulter
15. Rush Limbaugh (see a trend)
16. Tim Green
17. Paris Hilton
18. Jesse Palmer
19. Gwyneth Paltrow (sorry, gwynnie)
20. Wendy Pepper


Okay, who would make your list?

You Never Forget Your First Time!

Thanks to Amanda McCabe and Megan Frampton for giving me the idea for today's post. I'm running on low steam right now, since I haven't had any caffeine today. Damn period! Caffeine gives me the worst cramps, but I have a hard time functioning without it, and I only have a small cup a day.

Anyway, I loved Victoria Holt growing up. She was one of the first romance novelists that I ever read in my early teens before I discovered Woodiwiss and Small. I loved her gothic tales of mysterious mansions, and handsome alpha males who may or may not want to kill the heroine.

In her books, I got to travel to exotic places like Australia, and Africa, not to mention Cornwall and India. I think her books were the first ones that I read that were in the first person.

She wrote books under two other pseudonyms besides Victoria Holt. Straight historical fiction about the English and French royal families as Jean Plaidy, and as Phillipa Carr she wrote a series tracing one family from the Elizabethan period to the late nineteenth century before she died. I devoured every series. Thanks to Eleanor Hibbert (her real name), I developed a love for English history (particularly the Plantagenets), and the French that lasts to this day.

When I read Evelyn Vaughn's first book of the Grail Keepers series, I knew the myth of Melusine because I'd read about King John's widow Isabelle and her marriage to Hugh de Lusignan in a Jean Plaidy novel (she'd written the entire history of the English royal family up to Queen Victoria, with a side-trip to Mary, Queen of Scots).

Mistress of Mellyn, if you can find it, is one of her best books. Martha Leigh is a prim and freshly minted governess who has been hired by the remote and demanding Connan TreMellyn to care for his daughter Alvean. As the departure of the three prior governesses suggests, Alvean is a difficult charge, though understandably so since the recent death of her mother, Alice. As Martha tries to connect with Alvean, she researches the history of Mellyn, and discovers hidden family secrets that still haunt the present. Now familiar with Alvean, she feels herself falling for Connan. Though the desire between Martha and Connan grows, Alice's tragic death continues to haunt them both and endanger any future they may have.

A delightful combination of Rebecca and Jane Eyre. I can easily imagine it as a movie with James Purefoy and Tara Fitzgerald.

If you've never read Victoria Holt, this is the one to start with.

What was your first time?

What's next?

A miracle has occurred! I am almost completely set up at work, the only thing missing is the phone, and I can do without that for the time being. However, I do have my computer set-up, complete Internet access, Lotus Notes, and access to a printer.

I can now print out my first 3 chapters to send to the agent that requested it, and start working on the revisions for the other agent who requested the full manuscript. I also have 2 other agents I want to hit. I'm also thinking of sending my baby off to be professionally edited, which is a huge thing for me, not to mention the cost. At the moment, since I still have to pay off my lawyer, I plan or relying on the lovely friends in my chapter who volunteered to read the darn thing. I might even bring pages into my critique session on Saturday.

In the meantime, I need to figure out what I want to write next. Do I write my next chick-lit or another paranormal chick-lit romantic comedy? Or start working on the novellas that I just plotted set in Scotland? The whole novella thing freaks me out though, trying to tell a whole story and make the love story believable in a grand total of like 125 pages.

I just read 3 novellas over the weekend, and they all had the same basic plot, uptight American loosened up by sexy, Alpha Aussie. After awhile, I wanted something a little more meaty. I had a hard time getting into the stories. I wonder if it was just this writer because I've read novellas in the Secrets anthologies that were emotionally satisfying, and shorter than the novellas in this book.

I know I have a good hook for the anthology, I just need to make sure that I'm not writing the same hero and heroine all the time. I know some authors who do very well with this premise. They just change the names, and hair color but deep down they're the same characters.

I really want my next book to be better than the one before, but I'm having a crisis of confidence with my chick-lit. I wonder if I have the skills to pull it off without getting heavy and preachy, which is why I'm punching up the grandmother's in the book.

Sigh! I get to stay home tonight and actually watch TV for fun instead of for work!

Things I have learned

I've learned a few things this weekend, which I feel are very important to pass on, so that other people can benefit from my mistakes.

1) Remember when you're supposed to be at work. I was an hour late yesterday for work because I forgot that on Sundays, we start work at 6:30 instead of 7:30 which is the norm for the other 6 days of the week. I've been working so much lately that I plum forgot. I got pass this time, but I need to remember for next weekend.

2) Don't drink before you're required to spend many hours watching television. I made this mistake by going over to a friend's house before work and having a Cosmopolitan plus a small glass of champagne. I was having such a good time, and the apartment was so divine, that I had a hard time leaving. I ended up having to take a cab to work which cost me $15. I ate two slices of pizza at work (they thoughtfully provide us overworked drones with food on Sundays), but I was still a little loopy and kept forgetting which products I was supposed to be writing about.

3) Don't have an overdraft. My bank charges the princely sum of $30.00 everytime, I'm a little withdrawn. So I had a charge for $7.75, had insufficient funds, and they charged me $30. The bank just made 22.00 off that transaction. I need to seriously find a new bank.

4) If you work for a prestigious magazine like the New Republic, don't blow your job by making up or faking most of your stories. I watched Shattered Glass, starring Hayden Christensen as Stephen Glass, the guy who was caught when he faked a story on Hackers, by Forbes Digital actually who wanted to do a follow-up piece, and discovered that the story had been seriously faked. The DVD thoughtfully provided a 60 Minutes piece with the real Stephen Glass, who's excuse for his first made-up quote was that he needed a punchy quote for the story and since he didn't have one, he saw no reason why he couldn't just make one up, and it escalated from there. Once he saw the reaction his pieces were gettting from his colleagues, not to mention other publications, he wrote more pieces that were fabricated.

Because he had once been a fact-checker for the magazine, he knew what they were looking for, so he was able to create a false paper trail for himself, including fake notes, fake emails, a fake website, fake phone calls. He had his brother pretend to be the head of this software company Jukt Micronics. He finally blew it when his editor discovered there was no way that the story could have been true (using AOL to create a home page for Jukt Micronics didn't do him any good).

After he was fired, he completed law school, but he's unable to practice in New York because there is an ethical question. Who would have thunk it? What he did was too outrageous for the New York Bar Association, although he would make a perfect defense lawyer, since he's willing to go to any lengths. He also wrote a book, a thinly disguised roman a clef about his time at the New Republic which didn't win him any friends.

What got me was that he didn't realize that not only was he screwing himself, but the magazine, all the people who worked there, and supported him. His apologies seemed less like they were genuine, and more to do with him wanting to be liked. I got the strong feeling that was an overriding concern for him.

It just left a very bad taste in my mouth. People kill for the opportunity to be badly paid, to write for a publication like The New Republic and he blew it. His old editor, Chuck Lane said that if it was sunny out and Stephen said it was sunny, he would ask two or three other people to cooborate before he believed Stephen.

That's sad.

What Pin-Up are you?

You're Brigitte Bardot!


What Classic Pin-Up Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla


Very interesting! Never been a big fan of her movies. The whole animal rights thing she does can get a little crazy. Although I love animals, I don't believe in hurting people to protect them. She's also a little racist too isn't she?

What color am I?

you are blueviolet #8A2BE2

Your dominant hues are blue and magenta. You're the one who goes to all the parties but doesn't quite fit in at every one... you know what you want, but are afraid of what the world might think of it. You're a little different and that's okay with them, and if you're smart it's okay with you too. Your saturation level is higher than average - You know what you want, but sometimes know not to tell everyone. You value accomplishments and know you can get the job done, so don't be afraid to run out and make things happen. Your outlook on life is bright. You see good things in situations where others may not be able to, and it frustrates you to see them get down on everything.

the spacefem.com html color quiz

Good thing I like purple!

The Writing Game

It's been awhile since I've blogged about writing, I thought I'd give it a whirl since it's been on my mind lately.

I recently received my first check as a writer for the grand total of $138.74 for my training at my night job. When I held that check in my hand, I was proud as proud can be. Okay, it's not a multi-book contract, but I have to believe that dream is just around the corner.

In the meantime, 5 nights a week, I get the chance to write and watch TV, two things I would be doing anyway.

Of course, being that it's me, there is one problem. Tiredness. The last 3 shifts, I didn't get done until 12:30 a.m. and by the time I got home, it's 1:30. I'm working during the day from 8-5, so 2 days I had to go to work on 4 hours of sleep. I've already overslept twice. Fortunately for me, I know how to get dressed and out the door in a hurry.

Today, I managed to sleep until 8:30, even though I had an exercise class at 9:00 a.m. You've never seen anyone move so fast. I managed to make it just in time. Close call. Tonight, even though my shift started at 7:30, the show I'm supposed to watch and write about doesn't start until 11;30 which gives me 4 hours to kill.

Plenty of time to do my other writing. The other good thing, is that my bosses at my day job know I'm a writer, and they don't mind if I write on company time as long as I get my work done. So far, I've managed to edit 20 pages, and merge 2 characters, streamlining the novel considerably.

I've also had my first experience being heavily edited last night. My show for the night was Three Wishes, the new Amy Grant show. It was on from 9-10, 1/2 for writing the questions, I figured I'd be out of here by 11:00 tops. Didn't work that way.

Another writer was working on writing questions about the product placements, and any question of mine that seemed similar to a question that he wrote, I had to change. Instead of writing 12 questions, I wrote 17. By the end of the night, I was burned out and running out events from the show to write about.

An epiphany of sorts was had on line at the Post Office. I must have the slowest post office on record. 2 clerks and one long line. Anyway, on the way out, one of the women on line handed me an Avon sample with an attached card with her number to order more. Wow, I thought, what a smart idea. What chutzpah to hand out cards to total strangers.

Could I do that, when the time comes to promote my book? Could I go up to complete strangers in bookstores and hand out bookmarks? On-line at the supermarket, at my drycleaner? the nail salon? My hair salon? I guess if I want to sell books, I'm going to have to seriously think about doing something like that.

It can't hurt.

What do other people think?

The Golden Apple Awards

Last night we had our annual reception for our members and the publishing industry, and I'm happy to report it was a huge success. Everyone loved our new venue, and I managed to keep the awards portion of the evening to around 20 minutes, giving attendees more time to mingle and drink. I was smart, I waited until after the awards presentation before having a drink. I'd never been so happy to see a glass of champagne in my life.

Our Honorees were:

Librarian of the Year: Roxanne Campagna

Bookseller of the Year: Diane Sanders

Publisher of the Year: St. Martin's Press

Editor of the Year: Anna Genoese, TOR

Author of the Year: Eloisa James

Lifetime Achievement Award: Shirley Hailstock

Our Reception Chair, Darlene James, did a phenomenal job putting it together. My hat is off to her. I know hard it is to plan the reception. I did it for three years.

The Highs:

1) Having a certain agent tell me that if she had known how great our reception was, she would have shown up to collect her award when we honored her.

2) Chatting with Anna Genoese, who was our editor of the year. She's an absolute doll. When I pitched my romantic comedy chick-lit paranormal, she suggested that I send it to Natasha Panza, who I then pitched it to. Anna prefers dark paranormals which I'm not a big fan of myself.

3) Handing out our beautiful awards, and the gorgeous placques that were made by one of our members.

4) All the members who came out and volunteered to help that night.

5) The family of our librarian of the year, Roxanne Campagna who unfortunately passed away after suffering from ALS. Her husband and both of her sons came to the event. I get emotional just thinking about the lovely speech her husband gave.

6) Meeting author Sheila York (Star Struck Dead). Sheila and I both worked at Morgan Stanley at the same time, and a mutual colleague kept trying to introduce us but it never happened. I'm happy to report that she's an utter delight, and I'm so happy that she's joined our chapter.

7) The new members who came, and the potential new members who plucked up the courage to come. Hopefully they'll joing the chapter.

The Lows:

1) Not enough air conditioning. It got a little hot, with so many bodies in a small space.

2) Not having enough time to prepare the bios to introduce the honorees. In fact, we ended up not having one for Anna Genoese. Next time, I'll start preparing as soon as we make our decisions.

3) Having too much food, which we ended up donating to several homeless shelters. And not having enough booze.

I'd also make sure that I was at the entrance greeting people. I don't know how we're going to top ourselves next year for our twentieth anniversary but I'm sure we'll try.

WTF Moments of the day

"I don't know why people spread rumors about me. That's a question no one can answer. I'm just fabulous."

- Lil Kim in Blender Magazine.

Is she kidding? The woman is going to prison for a year for perjuring herself in front of a jury.

Here's another beauty - Talk about keeping it real: Tyra Banks underwent a televised sonogram on her new talk show to prove that her breasts aren't fake.

After Banks asked the men in the audience to leave, Dr. Garth Fisher from ABC's "Extreme Makeover" performed a touch test and then the sonogram. He concluded: "Tyra Banks has natural breasts; there are no implants."

Banks, who models for Victoria's Secret, also displayed how her push-up bra exaggerated her body. However, Banks said she's not totally real.

So that's good television, when you can show the audience that you're breasts are real! This is why I prefer a good television drama!

On Friendship

I found this quote by Marus Tullius Cicero and I thought I would share it:

"The most difficult thing in the world is for a friendship to remain unimpaired to the end of life. So many things might intervene: conflicting interests; differences of opinion in politics; frequent changes in character. Let this, then, be laid down as the first law of friendship, that we should ask from friends, and do for friends, only what is good. But do not let us wait to be asked either...Let us have the courage to give advice with candor.

How can life be worth living which lacks that repose which is to be found in the mutual goodwill of a friend? What can be more delightfcul than to have someone to whom you can say everything with the same absolute confidence as to yourself?

The greatest of all things is Friendship."

The 80's Strike Back

Your 80s Heartthrob Is

John Stamos

Who's Your 80's Heartthrob?

Wow, Blackie Parrish from GH! If that isn't a blast from the past! Remember when all the guys in the 80's wore like longish mullets? Or seriously big hair? I totally remember when Blackie was on GH. He was a drummer in Blackie and the Blackhearts (go figure). Jack Wagner played Frisco the lead singer. Also, Jimmy McNichol (Kristy's brother) played a songwriting busboy whose songs Blackie stole as his. When he got caught by his girlfriend, he accidentally killed her and was sent to prison, leaving the show and going on to Full House stardom.

God, seeing this picture of John Stamos brings me back memories. I was in high school, and college through most of the eighties, and then my early twenties. So here are few more 80's flashbacks.

The Tab Twins: Okay the Tab Twins were two girls in my high school who used to carry liters of diet soda (most frequently Tab, remember when saccharin was discovered to cause cancer in rats?) in class. God, Tab and Fresca were the diet sodas before Coke came up with Diet Coke. The Tab Twins were the 'bad girls' in school. The ones who were never fully in uniform, had older boyfriends, were smoking, drinking, and having sex before most of us hit high school. Both of them married young, probably because they got all their rebellion out while in their teens while the rest of us didn't find ourselves until our twenties (some of us are still finding ourselves). They were the ones who had kids when we had our ten year high school reunion.

Gloria Vanderbilt Jeans: I loved GV jeans. If you're curvy like I am, Gloria Vanderbilt were a godsend. I had sandwashed, black, and even a pink velvet pair. God, I loved those pink velvet jeans. They were gorgeous. I think velvet jeans should make a comeback.

Music - I love 80's music. Duran Duran, Culture Club, Wham, Pat Benatar, Billy Idol, Spandau Ballet, Billy Squiers, The Go-Go's, Rick Springfield. What's not to love

Dallas, Dynasty, Falcon Crest and Knots Landing - the quartet of night-time soaps that haven't been equaled. Rich people acting badly, stabbing each other in the back, sleeping around. There would be no Melrose Place or Desperate Housewives if it weren't for these shows. My favorite was always Knots Landing because it was the most real of the four shows, although Michelle Lee as Karen used to drive me bananas.

What are your 80's memories?

Hot Gossip!

It's hot here in New York and even hotter gossip this week!

Where to start? From Britney and Heidi having their babies to Renee and Kenny breaking up, Kate Moss snorting cocaine on the cover of the Daily Mirror, Bush taking somewhat responsiblity for the lack of help to New Orleans, to Russell Crowe claiming that he can't help being an asshole because he's Australian, celebrities having been running amok again.

But the biggest gossip here in New York was the cover of New York magazine. Not the cover story of Lachlan Murdoch leaving the family fold to start a new venture in Australia, leaving Rupert scrambling for who the new heir to the Newscorp throne is going to be (a television in the making. Perhaps starting Peter Bowman as the young Murdoch heir) but the cupcake wars.

Yes, you heard me, the cupcake wars. Apparently, cupcakes are big business here in New York, so much so, that Jennifer Appel, owner of Buttercup bakery, is suing a former employee claiming that he's stolen her ideas for his new bakery in Williamsburg in Brooklyn. She claims that she's just trying to protect her potential for franchising, he claims that having homey decor doesn't mean that he's stolen her ideas.

Is it just me, or have cupcakes been around forever? No one can copyright cupcakes! The whole cupcake wars started when Jennifer Appel and her former partner opened Magnolia Bakery in the village, made famous in Sex and the City. They split up as both friends and business partners and Jennifer opened Buttercup on the upper East Side. Now I've been to both bakeries, and they serve the same exact recipes. They both serve banana pudding with 'nilla wafers, chocolate trifle, brownies, red velvet cake, coconut cake etc.

Here's the kicker, when tourists who take the Sex and the City bus tour stop in front of Magnolia, they're eating cupcakes from Buttercup! Employees from both bakeries have now started their own bakeries, and they all make cupcakes. Only in New York could this be a huge story that it makes it into a national magazine.

This just got me thinking what a ripe (no pun intended) story this would be for a funny chick-lit romance. The old-time bakery across the street from the new fangled bakery that moves in on the family territory. Cupcake Wars!

It just goes to show you that you can find a plot pretty much anywhere for a novel.

Renee, Renee, I never thought you could be so flaky as to get married after a four month courtship and then get annulled five months later. Isn't 36 a little old to be having a starter marriage? I would expect this behavior from Brittany and Nicky Hilton but not you Renee. I mean if Danny Bonaduce and his wife can get married on the first date and still be married 15 years later (although I wouldn't claim them for the poster child for a happy marriage), surely you and Kenny can work this out? What happened to Kenny being 'your soul-mate', all that talk about how he understands your life etc. etc.?

Russell, I love you as an actor, but I would cross the street if I ever saw you cross my path. I don't know how this guy can claim that he doesn't have an anger management problem. Throwing a phone at someone, and all the bar fights this guy has been in, has more to do with his issues, then just 'being Australian' Since when does being Australian give someone the right to act like an ass. Then he blames Meg Ryan for not living a 'truthful life' for his problems when they were having a relationship. Oy!

And President Bush, ever heard the phrase 'the buck stops here?' You're the president of the United States. To say that you take responsibility to the extent that the federal government is responsible for not acting quickly enough to the disaster down in New Orleans, is not really taking responsibility no matter what Elisabeth Hasselbeck says.

It's only my opinion!

Getting in Touch with the Past

Today, I decided to tackle my hall closet, which hasn't been cleaned out since my mother passed away almost 16 years okay. My sister asked me why today, and I'm not sure why. It's not as if I was keeping the closet as some sort of shrine to my mother, on the contrary. There was just so much crap in the closet that when we were sorting through Mother's stuff 16 years, we both couldn't deal with it!

I just had a feeling that today was the day I should make a start. I had this idea that I could have a winter closet and a summer closet for my clothes. So I opened the closet door and was almost overwhelmed by the amount of crap that is crammed into this closet. I wouldn't be surprised if I found Jimmy Hoffa and Judge Crater in there, the closet is literally crammed from top to ceiling with junk. After awhile going through all the stuff was giving me a headache, and I needed to go lie down for awhile.

I knew that my parents had a lot in common, including being pack rats, but I have to admit that my mother has my father beat with this closet. I pulled out an aluminum tray filled with plastic silverware.

From my sister's wedding.

In 1968.

Yes, 37 year old plastic forks, knives, and spoons. How do I know they were from my sister's wedding? Well, even though I was only 3 at the time, I remember the silverware. Go figure.

Not only does my mother have old plastic silverware, but I also found nylons. Not pantyhose, but actual nylons still in the box. There must be 5 or 6 pairs of nylon stockings. Not to mention, photos, old tax returns, leases, my mother's civil service exam results, my summer school report from when I was 5 saying that I was ready for first grade.

And my mother must have saved every single coat that she wore in the last 30 years of her life! I couldn't believe how many coats there were. I found a beautiful one though that I'm definitely keeping. It's a black boiled wool or lambswool coat with a faux fur collar and cuffs (at least I hope they're faux). I also found another faux fur coat that I don't think I ever saw my mother wear.

But the cutest thing that I found in the closet were two savings account pass books that were opened for my oldest brother way back in the thirties. They each had a dollar each in the account, which must have been alot during the depression. I wish that I found them when my brother was still alive, I think that he would have gotten a kick out them.

I also found baby pictures of my sister, which she was thrilled by.

I also felt that I got to know my mother a little better by going through all this stuff that she had accumulated and kept for some reason (I'm going with the theory that she used this closet for a dumping ground of stuff she didn't know what to do with).

What did I learn about my mother? Well, mostly that she was crazy, which I kind of already knew.

Will I ever finish cleaning the closet? I'm sure that I will eventually when I gather my strength again. And get a shovel!

Useless info about me

1. What is your full name now? Elizabeth Kerri Mahon
2. What color pants are you wearing? None, I'm wearing a skirt
3. What are you listening to right now? *NSYNC
4. What was the last thing you ate? York Peppermint Patty
5. Do you wish on stars? Yes
6. If you were a crayon, what color would you be? Burnt Sienna
7. How is the weather right now? Hot & HUMID...
8. Who was the last person you spoke to on the phone? Darlene, my Golden Apple Awards chair
9. Do you like the person who sent this to you? Yes, absolutely
10. How old are you today? 40
11. Favorite drink? Champagne
12. Favorite sport? Figure Skating>
13. Favorite food? Lobster
14. What was the last movie you saw? PS with Laura Linney and Topher Grace
15. Favorite day of the year? My birthday
16. What was your favorite toy as a child? Teddy Bear
17. Summer or Winter? Autumn
18. Hugs or kisses? Both
19. Chocolate or vanilla? Chocolate, the darker the better
20. Do you want your friends to e-mail you back. Yes
21. Living arrangements? Co-op
22. When was the last time you cried? Everyday
23. What is under your bed? Dust bunnies
24. Who is the friend you have had the longest? Jenny Hulswit
25. What did you do last night? Had a mani-pedi with a good friend
26. Favorite smell? Lilacs>
27. Favorite TV show? Law & Order, SVU
28. Happy in life? I will be when this sword of damocles isn't hanging over my head
29. What are you afraid of? Never having someone to love again
30. Plain, buttered or salted popcorn? Neither
31. Favorite car? Rolls baby
32 Favorite flower? Lilacs>
33. Number of keys on your key ring? 5
34. How many years at your current job? Currently unemployed
35. Favorite day of the week? Friday
36. What did you do on your last birthday? Flew to London
39. How many cities have you lived in? 3
40. Do you make friends easily? depends
41. How many people will you be sending this to? Anyone who reads this blog!

Playing Catch-Up

It seems no matter what I do, I'm playing catch-up. I have so many things going on right now, that it's hard to keep them all straight.

Next week is our annual Wine & Cheese reception, now renamed the Golden Apple Awards, and I'm so excited about the whole thing I can't stand it. Our awards are beautiful, and I have high hopes that the event will come off well. Right now, we're a little low on industry people and attendees, but it all seems to come together two days before the event, when we're scrambling to make badges.

This is the first year that I will be actually hosting the event, although I was the reception chair for four years. I'm also the program chair for our chapter as well as being President, and of course, my thoughts are running to what can I do in 2006 to make our programs so exciting that members will want to come to the meetings! Also, how can I best serve our published authors to get them more involved in the chapter, in between meeting their various deadlines and dealing with their personal lives.

I also have to write my monthly President's letter tonight, and once again I'm at a complete loss as to what I'm going to be writing about. I never know ahead of time, I usually start off on one tangent and then end up on a completely different one. All I know is that it will involve Paranormals in some way since this is our focus for the October Keynotes issue.

I also have to confirm with our October speakers, and then give the go-ahead for our treasurer to order their books for the after program booksigning.

Yikes! Plus I'm working 5 nights a week, and still looking for a day job. Somewhere in their, I need to find the time to do my own writing. And get some sleep.

There's always something!

Ever have one of those days where nothing seems to go right? Where you just want to go back to bed and wake up again, kind of like a do-over? Like Groundhog Day but without the pesky replaying of the same day over and over again. That's what my life was like yesterday.

It started off well, the sun was out and then went rapidly down hill, from the lack of working computers at the library to the non-starter of my job last night. Just one mess after another.

First the computers. As you all know, my modem is kaput and I'm too broke to buy a new one, so I've been using the free computers at my local library. I get 45 minutes, and sometimes extra if they aren't busy. Yesterday, out of the 12 computers my library has, 3 were working. Yes, 3. So I have to wait 2 hours to use the computer.

Than I goofed and forgot my appointment at the Department of Labor. If you get unemployment, you are required to go to these information sessions. Well my mine was yesterday, but I mistakenly thought it was Wednesday. Oops! Hopefully, I'll be able to make it up on another day. Keep your fingers crossed.

Not to mention that I also have to call up and let them that I haven't actually gone back to work yet. I need to keep the unemployment active, until I know that this job is going to fly.

Which brings me to last night. I get to work and discover that I get to watch one of my favorite shows, Prison Break. Great right? Well yeah, but there aren't exactly alot of product placements in a show set in prison, so basically I did nothing. No writing. It was fun, and I get paid, but I was looking forward to actually doing something, not just sitting around watching TV.

Hopefully tonight will be different. Of course, now I'm nervous because last night was such a non-starter. I'm hoping that they pair me up again with another writer, to help me out until I get my footing.

I also might be working another job Thursday night, a Lock and Key party as a coordinator which should be really interesting. I had other plans, but I can't turn down $75 when I'm poor!

Social Butterfly

Well, I had quite the social weekend for a change. I received an invitation to a book party on Friday and I almost didn't go because it was in Brooklyn, which is like going to another state if you live in New York. So instead of getting into my pajamas and watching a movie, I decided to be social and I schlepped on the 2 train to Park Slope and I'm glad I did.

It was a book party for the Latina Karma Sutra written by the sister of one of the members of the New York City chapter of RWA. Dr. Charley Ferrer is the only Latina with a PhD in Human Sexuality and her lecture was fun and informative. She self-published the book because she was told that there was no market for the book but she knew better.

The book is gorgeous with provocative but tasteful pictures. If you easily blush, this book is still for you. Personally, I think you can never have too many sex books! Don't think that just because you aren't Latina, you can't learn anything from this book. It's great for everyone, men, women, etc.

Saturday was our monthly chapter meeting and we had Jill Winters, author of Just Peachy, give a workshop on Killer Queries. It was just what the chapter needed. Queries get your foot in the door. If you can't interest them from your query, they'll never read the book no matter how good it is. That's just the way the market works now. We've also issued the Book in a Month challenge to our members, and we had 7 people who were interested which is great.

I also learned that Marymount Manhattan College is doing a chicklit course for four weeks which I make take as a precursor to starting the challenge.

Afterwards, I had fun shopping for wine with our Golden Apple Awards Chair. We ended up sharing a pitcher of Sangria before I went to work for more training. It's amazing I was able to concentrate.

Sunday was the baby shower, which was lovely. The mama to be had pictures of the future baby framed on all the tables and a fun quiz on how well you knew the happy couple. I thought I should win the award for most creative, since I only knew maybe half the answers. I also met a woman who writes literary fiction. Her book sounded so interesting that I may have to reserve it at the library.

Sunday was also the final night of American Princess. I can't tell you enough how happy I was that Niqui made it to the final two. It was amazing to finally have a black contestant on a reality TV show that wasn't a stark raving bitch! For once, the stark raving bitch was a white chick, Angela S. who tried to hijack the final competition (all the girls came back to determine who would be the final two sort of like Survivor). Most of the girls asked pertinent questions how about the experience and why they should win the competition, but not Angela S. She decided it was time for a little revenge on the women that she felt were determined to get rid of her. Crystal put it correctly when she asked if they were in hell!

I love this show and I'm happy to see that they are doing another series. I'm too old to audition, but I do want to work on it in some capacity even if I have to do it for free, so I'm putting the feelers out and I'm going to try and get a job working on the show. Wish me luck!

Latter Day Pride and Prejudice

Yesterday was my first day in training at my hopefully new job. I can't tell you anymore about it because I signed a confidentiality agreement, which means my lips must be sealed. All I can say is it's a lot harder than it looks to do this job.

After my hard day at work, I decided to relax by watching the Mormon version of Pride and Prejudice (yes, there is a Mormon version, who knew?). What I mean by that is, the filmmakers are Mormons, and the movie was set in Utah, and what clearly appears to be Brigham Young University and nobody drinks in the movie, or has coffee unless it's decaffinated.

In this version of Jane Austen's classic tale, Elizabeth is an aspiring novelist who clearly has no idea how to properly format a manuscript, Jane is a foreign exchange student from South America, Kitty, Lydia and Mary are also students but not related to Elizabeth or Jane. They all live in a big house on campus owned by Lydia's family. Bingley is some kind of entrepeneur who sells classic music for canines CD's on television, and Darcey (who is still English) turns out to be a big time publisher. Collins doesn't end up with Charlotte Lucas, who in this version is played by Carmen Rasmussen from American Idol. Instead he ends up with Mary. The big misunderstanding with Bingley comes about because he sees Collins proposing to Jane, and mistakenly believes that they are engaged (?).

This movie wasn't bad, but it didn't have the sparkle, with or ingenuity of the other Austen adapations, Clueless or Bridget Jone's Diary. I couldn't figure out if Elizabeth was a undergrad or a graduate student, it's not really clear. She also has no desire to get married. She meets Darcy in a book store where the first misunderstanding occurs when she's slightly rude to him, and he's rude back. Because none of the women are related, they're just roommates, it lacks the tension of the book. It might have worked better if they had all been sorority sisters.

Also, Wickham in this version, isn't particularly venal, he's just a bigamist. And the actor playing Darcy was completely miscast. He started out well but then became completely goofy over Elizabeth. The great thing about Colin Firth was that he maintained Darcy's dignity even in the most ridiculous situations in Bridget Jones. The movie might have worked better if Darcy had been a visiting English professor who looked down on American English students, and he had to be Elizabeth's advisor or something.

There were some funny scenes of Elizabeth and Jane, depressed over their sorry love life, wandering the supermarket in their pajamas buying ice cream, and an incredibly convenient scene where Elizabeth falls asleep on a mountain and wakes up when it's dark and rainy. She conveniently stumbles upon a cabin owned by Darcy, where he and his sister are holed up for the weekend. It just didn't make sense.

I still haven't seen the Bollywood Bride and Prejudice, but I plan on renting it soon. I loved Bend it like Beckham, so I'm hoping that this movie is just as good.

Las Vegas vs. Miami

My birthday is in less than two months, so I'm trying to decide what I want to do this year. Normally for my birthday I invite people out for drinks at some trendy restaurant or bar. Last year it was Flute, a champagne bar, and then on my actual birthday which was Election Day, I flew to London and officially celebrated the big one with my London friends. Jerry Springer, the Opera and dinner at the Wolsley. Probably one of the best birthdays I've ever spent, plus it was the 20th anniversary of my friendship with my friend Patrick.

This year, I'm thinking of getting the hell out of dodge and taking the act on the road. Right now the top two choices are Miami vs. Las Vegas, two places that I have never been but have always wanted to go. Sin City vs. gorgeous Art Deco Hotels, and a sandy beach. Both adult playgrounds.

It's a tough call. Of course, it's all in the name of research. There is a scene in Nearly Famous thats set in Las Vegas, so really I'd just be checking to make sure all my details are correct, as well as having fun. And Miami, well there are all kinds of stories that could come out of my trip to Miami, so really both trips would be a tax write-of as well as a birthday celebration.

Of course, I'd have to see which ones of my intrepid girlfriends are up to the task of going on a road trip with me to celebrate my birthday. I know that my BFF would be happy to go to either place.

I figure that we should be able to get a good deal on a hotel room since the trip would be in the middle of the week, and there are certainly a lot of flights from Newark to both places. And both cities have a Joe's Stone Crab House. Frankly, I'm leaning more toward Las Vegas. Ex sweetie pie could drive up from LA to party with us, and maybe I can convince some LA chicks to join in on the fun. I'm dying to stay at the Bellagio, but I'd settle for the Hard Rock or the Palms.

Granted, this trip all depends on whether or not i have the benjamins to spend. I may end up having to go to Mohegan Sun for my birthday. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it ain't Vegas.