Wednesday, Aug 31 05

Here we are again.
I am so excited. I made a couple of bookmarks today. No, not one of the ones I sent out as prizes, but nice ones. They came out very pretty. I didn't make the pattern, but I did follow one I found online. I love the internet. Anything I may want, I just have to look for. Wonderful.

Last night, I finished the tote. I haven't decided what to do with it yet, but I may keep it, I may give it as a gift, or I may give it to a winner of a contest. Haven't decided yet. But here are some pictures of it. It is 19 inches across and 12 inches tall.





Today, Jeigh and I worked on the upcoming newsletter Nightsweats. I am really interrested in seeing how it goes over with the readers.

To get readers, I think we are going to go the bribery route. A wonderful woman, who loves bribes, suggested it. Sounds good to me. I will have to suggest it to Jeigh. :)

Mythbusters will be on soon, and I wouldn't want to miss them. But I have a couple of minutes so thought I would take care of this evenings log.

You know, I don't have one plant in the house. Yes, I know this comes out of nowhere, but I am an admitted plant killer. I try, and I try, but they persist in dying. I don't know what I do wrong, but sheesh, I am to the point of buying fake flowers so I can admire them without the trouble.

Ok, my I am dying here. My youngest was talking to me, she told me to tell you she made the armed drill team, but she had finished her very long story and stood to leave the room. Halfway to the door, she noticed Mythbusters was starting and perpetrated the most interresting, U turn I have ever seen. She tried to play it off but I started laughing. Now she is mad at me for writing this but it is the funniest thing to happen all day.

Have a good one.

Brenda

Tuesday Aug 30 05

Good evening everyone.

Hm. I have no idea what to write about tonight. I didn't do much of anything today. After mainlining enough coffee to get by, I proofed a couple of books and worked on the tote bag. The tote is nearly done, and the proofs are returned. Haven't done anything else today. I could steal the 'how to make a baloney sandwich' that I read several years ago, since that is what I ate for dinner, but since I didn't write it, I'll let you find it yourself.

I do have one observation. Teenagers are weird. I have three of them. They are intellegent, good looking, and not the biggest geeks in school. They do well. I was spending the day hiding out in my room with the laptop and yarn and I am so loved that they are sitting on my bed now, discussing their schedules. School starts on Tuesday and they are ready. My youngest will be a freshman in high school and my oldest will be a Senior. My middle teen will be a sophomore. The youngest is very excited to finally have made it to high school. She is hopping around making sure her cool clothes are in good shape. My oldest is worried about graduating and having to deal with the big, bad world. My middle teen, plays video games. He is upset that there is only another week to play them full time.

I will get the chore of magic school bus driver. Yes, I get to make sure all the teens arrive on time to delve into acadamia. Oh, yay! Lucky me. I get to deal with the parental units that haven't mainlined their coffee yet, much less gotten out of their jammies. They don't use signals, they quadruple park so nobody can get by. They will jump out in front of you and block you for a good twenty minutes.

Intelligent that I am, I told the teens that this year we will meet in a different spot. Away from the majority of the traffic and nowhere near the parking lot. Tuesday, I will give you an update as to how it went.

I suppose tonight will be a short one, comparitively. I didn't do a whole lot so don't have a whole lot to share. Maybe tomorrow I will do something rare and exciting. Doubt it though. Wish me luck.

brenda

Monday 29 August

Notice, everyone, how the title on the posts keep changing style. I guess I am trying to find the right one for me. Be patient, I will eventually get it right.

And so Monday is over. Yay! I had an appointment today. Jury duty. Yes, Brenda is a legal, voting American and will gladly do my civic duty with a minimal of grumbling.

Actually it was a nice relaxing day, except for the dress code. I was wearing pumps, tights, and a very nice brown wool skirt. Oh, sure, I was wearing a top, but it was so light that you could practically see my pretty bra through it. It was hot here today, too. I didn't dress for the weather.

My day went something like this:

I get up, mainline coffe, but only one cup. Shower, which I am sure the other million prospective jurors appreciated, and used deoderant, which I am sure they also appreciated. while brushing my hair, I downloaded the third Society story into my palm. It is only on chapter six, and it has been a while since I worked on it (March of 01), so figured I should reaquaint myself with it while I waited.

I hop into the van and drive to the county seat. I get there early, it is 7:40. Clomp, clomp, clomp. Boy, these shoes already hurt. Sure wish I had worn my tennies. Waited in a midsize line and got checked in. Found a fairly comfortable seat, opened my palm and got straight to work. About fourty minutes later I come out of my writing stupor and look at the line. It was out the door and around the corner. Glad I got there early. Went back to working on my story.

Eventually, a loud, booming voice comes from the heavens demanding my attention. I glance up, realizing we are about to start, and look around bleerily. Wow! where'd all these people come from? Oh, and look, we get to watch a video. Just like kindergarden. So we watch the, THIS IS A GREAT STATE, DO YOUR DUTY! video and then settle back in to wait for them to organize our names into groups and contemplate how tingly we felt at being chosen to keep our county safe from potential criminals. I tingled for about a minute, then went back to my book. Oh, poop. Lots of pov work going to have to be done.

Again, the booming voice jerked me out of the world I am creating. I huffed and looked around. The rats had jumped up and were clumped around a couple of bullitin boards. I waited till most of them had returned to their chairs and then wandered over there to see what was the big deal. OH HEY! Check it out! My own personal name right there in group B, and they even gave me my own personal number; 035. Woohoo!

Now that the all important check in has been completed we must now wait patiently for them to call our group. Luckily for me, I can go back to the Society. Others around me, who did not plan ahead for the boredom, talked amoungst themselves and read the 10 month old womens magazines in the rack. I think I saw one man checking out how to get and keep his boyfriend by sexual bribery. I thought about that for a moment, decided it would work for a while, then went back to the Society.

The next time the voice came, it was about 10:15. Interresting. The voice is saying that Groups A and B can please leave, but return by 1:15 pm. I gather my things and head for the van. I wondered where I could find more coffee. One cup isn't going to get me through the day. There is a mall nearby. I saw it as I got off the freeway, so headed back that way.

Gotta tell you. The mall sucked. No Starbucks, no Gloria Jean's, nothing. Oh, look, a Thai shop. I go in, stared at the board and tried to decipher it. I ended up with a frozen Thai Spiced Chai. I felt adventuresome. I have never had chai, and I still don't know what it is, but frozen and with whipped cream, it hit the spot. I sat on a bench in the middle of the mall, enjoying this new flavor and chilling out, when I noticed a grocery store across the street and my stomach growled. Cool. I hopped back into the van and shot across the street. I ended up with a sandwich, a cup of pineapple chunks, blueberry yougurt with Splenda, and a quart of lowfat milk. Love the stuff. I decided to drive back to the courthouse. It is 11:15.

I eat half the sandwich in the van. Decide it is too hot to eat, and shove everything else under the seat. I took a cross stitch project I have in the van (a hurry up and wait project that will only be removed from the van when it is completed), and returned to the jury room. Ahh, air conditioning. I worked on the cross stitch for about an hour, then went to the nearly empty cafeteria (which told me something, bought a bottled water and returned to my chair and worked on my cross stitch and alternated it with the story.

Eventually, 1:30 rolled around and a short, armed man came to the front of the room and hollered for the B group. I stood, listened to his directions, decided I had already forgotten them, and followed a teachers pet. Up the elevator, past lots of people wearing comfortable clothing -- shorts and flip flops -- and down a long dark hallway. A very long hallway. How long is this hallway anyway?

Wood panneling and a back wall. Oh, this must be it. There is a door to the left, a door to the right, and a blank wall in front of us. We wait for the short, armed gentleman to catch up. Apparenly, only one elevator is operational, so we must wait for the stragglers to catch up. (Jeopardy theme song*trademarked*) I lean on the 90 year old panneling and watch the armed man put his hand on his weapon, patiently waiting. Hm, maybe I should stand out of the firing zone. I slide down till I am standing parallell with him. Ok, out of view. Eventually, he gets bored immagining the long hallway as a firing range, and decides we have waited long enough. He gives us some instructions and we file into the room. Oh boy, a real courtroom.

Four rows of wooden, squeeky chairs, like old, old theater chairs are in two columns. Facing them is a tall female, armed. I go sit parallel to her. Ok, out of range. Good plan. Also, a woman I would have liked to loan my brush, and a couple of suited men and a younger man who never moved. We won't discuss him.

So, we find out we aren't there for an actual, normal type trial. We are battling for the 14 posistions (12 jurors-2 alternates), for a mental competancy case. I think, "Cool. This might actually be interresting." The Judge is a nice looking older guy, with bad jokes that I thought were hillarious. (Have I mentioned that my kids think I am easily amused?) He gives us some instructions, like when we get to the hot seats, read the card. Ok, I can do that.

Eighteen people are called. I am not one of them. Sigh. Ok, I can work with this. I will take notes on the questions so I can answer them correctly, and not sound stupid.A lawyer stands and tells some lame jokes that I even had trouble with. But that's ok, I will probably eventually repeat them. All 18 people are questioned by the judge and the lawyers.

Then the ax fell on several people. They went home.

I though, "OK, so there are free seats now, I'm ready." They did not call Brenda.

Sigh.

So, I take more notes on questions they ask and wait. Two more get the ax and two more are called. Brenda is sitting in the same chair two hours later and the hard wood chair is really uncomfortable. My butt is sound asleep and has been for an hour and a half. I am scared to move because adjustments cause the chairs to squeek like the hinges on a one hundred year old cemetary.

Then the unimaginable happens. I had the best answers in the place ready to go. I had the most interresting truths ever heard. AND WHAT HAPPENS???? The jury is full and the rest of us are dismissed. I was shocked. Dismayed. Heartbroken.

I grumbled and the lady sitting beside me laughed and said, "You really wanted to do this, didn't you? I saw your notes." I grumbled some more and left the room. My day is done. Almost 8 hours at the courthouse and all I have to show for it is a pink dissmissal paper. Stamped with todays date. Blagh.

So, I drive home. Sad and forlorn. I tried cheering myself up by yelling at the bad drivers, but it didn't seem to be working. I found my way home, and went straight to the bedroom. Peeling off sweat-ladened clothing, I put on my Tshirt and shorts and climbed in bed with the laptop to check my email. This is the ending to my great court adventure. Kind of disappointing, actually. It would have been much better for research if I had been called on. Oh well, I guess I can't have everything.

Lots of messages, but none from the bookmark winners. I have emailed the groups to ask for delivery verification.

On the craft front, I mentioned that I worked on a cross stitch project. I is a 5x7 mermaid that is about half done. And this evening I am working on the tote. Might have to add rows to it, because I think it will be a bit short otherwise. The great thing about crafting, is remodifying patterns to suit onesself.

Hopefully, everyone has survived Katrina, are safe and their property is intact.

I think that is quite enough for this evening. Tomorrow, I have plans to proof a couple of books and work on book three some more. Gonna have rewrites on this one already.

Night all. :)

Brenda

Sunday 8-28-05

Happy Sunday everyone.

The nation, no, the WORLD rejoices. Brenda has finished her ironing. YAY!!

My day was very, very quiet. I watched tv, Geo, Animal Planet, and some others, and crocheted. Congratulated Jeigh for being a FAR Recommended read and mopped the kitchen floor.Already mentioned the fabulous job I did on the ironing.

Other than that? nothing. I didn't even change out of my comfy lounging clothes.

This has been a good week. My first book came out, I got two great reviews, my kids are registered for school (starts on Sept 6th) and my ironing is done. YAY!

Tomorrow, I have Jury duty. I don't realy know what to expect since I have been excused every other time I was called up. It will be an adventure and I plan on taking notes in case one of my characters get called up.

I was watching Animal planet earlier and they were doing B Movie Monsters. I love Bad B Movies and had seen the two they mentioned. I have seen much worse. I still say that Electric Glide Blue with Robert Blake is the worst movie ever made. I watched it the second time, simply because I couldn't believe it had really been as bad as I remember. It was. I will not run that experiment again.

How about you? Got a movie that was just so bad, you remember who was in it and the title?

On the crochet front, I have put aside the horse temporarily and have been working on a tote for me. It is going to be big. Big and hopefully nice. It will definitly hold lots of stuff. Don't know what yet, but I will think of something to put in it.
Oh, I was shown this website today and thought it was pretty informative.
http://www.crochet911.com/home.html

I still mosty use www.stitchguide.com to figure out how to do something, but you can tell me your favs.

Right now, I am watching a Rocks in Space show on Geo. Pretty cool. We are going to get slammed with a huge rock, eventually. Unfortunately, until we are able to migrate to other planets, we are going to have to worry about that.

Hurricaine Katrina is supposed to hit our shores tonight. It has the potential to drown New Orleans, Louisiana. That is a very bad thing. They are already at sea level and any little bit of water causes horrible things to happen. Good luck to the people in the affected areas. Stay safe.

I should probably tell you about my experiment today. Last night, before I finally conked out, I saw one of those hair sweeping rubber brooms. I thought to myself, blearily, "I got one of those. Works great on the carpet and all the hair I have shedded." And nodded sleepily. The broom was well worth the $6 I paid for it. But NO! The infomercial shows me the many, many uses this broom has. I mean, it sweeps and mops too! I wondered if it would really work. Then I remembered nothing more until I awoke and had a couple of cups of coffee.

Once I had completed the morning ritual of mainlining my morning motivator, I remembered the infomercial. In an uncommon burst of energy, I whipped out my bucket and filled it with hot water and laundry detergent, and the rubber broom. I moved the carpets in front of the sink and stove and swept the area... "Hey, I've been looking for that spatula for weeks."
Status. It sweeps well. It picked up or shoved back all the stuff on the floor, even under the edges of the cabinets.
Then, in an act of bravery, I wet the floor by dunking the rubber broom into the soapy water (that smelled springtime fresh) and deluged the unresisting floor. commencing the scrubbing, I noticed that the water puddle was turning black. After muttering about the deplorable condition of my 1970's circa green tile flooring, I used the back side of the broom, with the handy-dandy squeegy thingamabob and pulled all the black water my direction. OHHH, pretty. Well, clean and dry anyway. but now I have this sludge puddle at my feet. What to do, what to do?
Well, I drag out my spongemop and suck up all the ickies. Worked good too.

Anyway, after repeating the process a few times, my kitchen is really small, I decide it looked good and I was too hot and tired to consider the rather large dining room. Eventually, I returned to the kitchen to empty the bucket and put away the tools of the job and what do I see??? A sticky kool-aid spot, not only staining the white counter, but the floor.

I decided it just wasn't worth it and returned to my crochet.

So, how was your day?

Brenda

8-27-05

Howdy everyone.

Good evening. Well, my dishes are done and all but one load of laundry is done. Whew. What a day.

I am sitting here working on a crochet project. It is a horse pillow for the mil for Christmas. Hoping to get it done tomorrow. That would be one more project completed.

Let's see. Today, I messed with the settings on the blog and hopefully anyone can post messages to me. Here's the rules. If you get rude, I will delete you. I will ignore you and make you insane. I know that if someone is being irritating it is because they are looking for attention and I will treat you like a two year old and ignore you till you go away or take a nap.
Other than that, including the whole sex thing I mentioned the other day, that's it. Just be nice or go to another group. This ain't the one.

Now, to the good stuff.

...

Well, I didn't have to cook tonight. Hubby was in the mood for butt burners. Lemme explain. We have this little mom and pop Mexican food restaurant just around the corner. They have the hottest hot sauce in town and it is too good to pass on. Love the stuff. I get cravings at least once a month. Now to explain the butt burner nomenclature... If you have ever seen that Cheech and Chong movie, the one Cheech Marin is hollering Come on Ice cream... well, these burritos make you call for the ice cream. :)

Now that you are thoroughly disgusted, lemme tell you about a contest. Loose-id authors are holding a contest. It has to do with puzzle pieces and prizes. Readers will search out puzzle pieces on websites, weblogs, newsgroups... just anywhere we promote our stuff. I think the idea is to gather puzzle pieces from different sites and win. I will have more information soon as the contest starts around the first of Sept.

I have offered a copy of Regulating Archimedes and some bookmarks.

As I find out information, I will share it with you, the lucky readers of my blog.

I have been chatting with one of my groups and am still working on my horse pillow.

I think I should close for tonight and come back tomorrow. I am watching Sci-fi, crocheting and chatting. There is only so much even I can do. LOL

Night.

Brenda

8-26-05

Good evening all. What a day. I got a call from my sister in law. What a nice call. We discussed how much she liked my book. I basked in pleasure. We discussed her teaching. I commiserated. We discussed my book some more, and I continued to bask.

After that, I had to do family things. Like make dinner. We have gotten a cheap little George Forman grill (it is trademarked... :) )and I made hamburgers in it. They were yummy. Very good. Juicy. Not dry. I am a burger connoisseur. No vergitarianism for me. Animal flesh. Honestly, I have added more fruits and veggies in my diet to try to get healthier, but I will not give up meat.

I finished reading Jeigh's next book, neener neener. Then I tried fixing my laptop. Think I am going to have to reformat the harddrive. Sigh. Oh well, at least it will be safer.

It is Friday night. I am watching TV with the son and there is nothing on. Didn't get any writing done, but I am nearly caught up on my outside obligations. Hopefully, Monday, I will be able to start working on Alexi's story. Book 3.

I haven't played with yarn all week. Need to. But first, I have to crack the whip and do chores. Ugh. Oh well, gotta do what I gotta do.

OH! I broke down and bought a really expesive iron at Big Lots (that's trademarked too) today. Ok, so it wasn't really expensive. Just $14. But when I only used the other iron 4 times, it seems like a lot.

It was hot here today. 109 I think. I hate the heat. I always say I like the winters here, mild compared to most of the country, and I can always put on more clothes, but only so much I can take off before scaring animals and neighbors alike. Plus, it is hard to play with my yarn if it is hot. It's like laying under a blanket in 100 degree weather. Oh, wait! It IS laying underneath a blanket in 100 degree weather.

I wonder if anyone is even reading this, but if not, well, at least I have a journal for me.

Recently, I did an interview with Jeigh Lynn. My youngest daughter read it and informed me that the answers sounded like I didn't love them. After I denied it with fervor, I read it over, and dang. She is right.

So, in the interest of my loving family, here is the addendum to the interview.

My children are my life. I didn't work for many years so I could be home when they were, be available whenever they might need me, be the carpool mom if they wanted to go anywhere, to be able to run errands while they were at school so they wouldn't have to waste their time when they could be watching anime or playing videogames or watching movies, and for being here when they were sick and needed to come home from school. I love my children dearly, I have very rarely wished my life different, more exciting, or at least being able to go out once a month. It doesn't happen. I don't mind, much. I am the mom. I am raising them. Hopefully to be intelligent, productive members of society. I joke that I can't wait till they are off on their own and leaving me an empty nest, but I'm not really sure I will be happy. Oh, sure, for a while I will run around all day, not even putting on clothes, scaring the hell out of door to door salespersons and Jehovah's Witnesses (sorry if I have misspelled your deities name)but after that, things will return to a near normal existence where I will bemoan the fact that my ungrateful children never call me unless they need something.

Now, the reason I tried not to mention them, is that I write sex. I know my kids know about it, and so do their friends, but there are a lot of freaks in this world and I would prefer that my writing never touches my babies. That is the one and only reason. Not that I don't love my children, but because I do. So there, baby.

Since I have unloaded, I am going to see what I feel like working on. Something made of yarn, I'm sure. Maybe some time soon, I will have a picture to post of my work.

Have a lovely Saturday. Catch you tomorrow night so I can tell you about another of my exciting adventure as a full time writer.

Brenda Bryce

8-25-05

Hi all. Welll, anyone who is reading this anyway. I am doing the exciting chore of ironing. However, I don't think my iron is heating up.

Yup. Tested it again, and it gets warm, but not hot. darn. Now I can't iron. snicker.

Today was a busy one. I am wiped out. Started off running. My oldest had a doctors appt. Then had to meet my youngest at the 9th grade orientation. Good thing I went. She wasn't even enrolled. Had to fix that. Then, proofed a couple of books, got a request to see the entire manuscript of Midas' Treasure, and got two more proofs. I finished cleaning up my manuscript and sent it to the editor. Proofed one of the two proofs, and now need to read my cp's story. Thought I would catch some Funny Animal Videos and iron, but dang, my iron is broken.

My mom called and told me how much she loved my book. Regulating Archimedes. Whew! Glad she liked it. She is as much of a voracious reader as I am. :)

So, that was my day. Oh, the exciting life of a writer. Not much different than a readers. Except less house cleaning. :)

My children help, because they are good, loving teenagers, but sheesh, they make more messes than they clean. Oh well, guess everyone has their turmoils.

I had an epiphany last night about the third vampire book. I know how it is going to be. That was a good thing. I am getting ready to go back and write it, and hadn't a clue as to how the middle and end would be. Now I have a clue and simply need to make the characters tow the line.

Wish me luck.

Brenda

Trying to update

Hey everyone. It is still just me, cause I still haven't told anyone yet. I know, it's like I am keeping a dirty little secret. But hey, I wanted to mention my Critique Partner's website. She is a fabulous writer and a hell of a web page designer. We are in a critique group that is called JBuL for reasons known only to us. :) Jeigh Lynn is also a Loose_Id writer, and has 3, count em, 3 books available to purchase. Werewolves, and gods. Yummy. If you would like to check out her site click the link.

http://www.jeighlynn.com/

If you want to know what the group is reading, or doing, click JBuL and it will take you right to us.

If, however, you would like to interract with us in a more personal way, (Please, we aren't ho's. We are writers and NO, we don't want to have sex with you. Dang it.), but, if you would like to talk books, kids, books, personal interrests,(again... be nice to us. We are delicate), and/or what might interrest US, join our group.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nightsweats/

Once again, I reiterate. NO! We don't want to have any physical contact with you.
Get over it.

:)

Brenda Bryce.

Opening Post

Welcome to my blog. blog. blog... hm. Maybe I should tell some people about it. Otherwise, I am just talking to myself. Later.

Today was a good day. My book The Society 1: Regulating Archimedes came out yesterday. A lovely lady in my crochet group told me it was great and that she read it all in one night. I thought WOOHOO! Someone likes it. Cheers, kudos, hooplas. Yes, I was jazzed.

That was this morning. After a day of taking the oldest to the high school so she could work the library and pass out textbooks, I went to the grocerystore. I came home, tossed a lovely stew into the crockpot, and gave away 8 hand crocheted bookmarks. The penis ones. Took them to the post office to mail, and picked up the daughter.

That is how exciting my day was. Emailing everyone under the sun. I am no dummy. Gotta get the word out there if I want a cult following. LOL. So I pressed, pushed, and begged for people to buy my book. I know of 5. LOL

This evening though, my whole day was made. I got my first review. Ecataromance has a lovely reviewer that hunted my hard to find tush and shared with me her soda shot through the nose experience. I loved it. Laughed and laughed. Then I checked out the actual review... http://www.ecataromance.com/html/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1387 and proceeded to jump up and down hollering, "Five, Five, I got a freaking five." I thought it rhymed very well, but as I glanced around to soak in the joyous expressions on my husband and son's faces... hm, they were looking at me as if I had snapped. Oh well, I proceeded to instruct them in the high art of reading reviews. I put it in their terms. I won.

I feel as if I have won. I am glad that the reviewer seemed to have loved Regulating Archimedes, and hope that I don't get any negative reviews. That would be a bummer.

Anyway, once I tell some individuals and groups about my wonderful, one item blog, then I won't feel as if I am talking to myself. Best get to that.

Brenda Bryce.