I Can't Believe...

...they're predicting a major snowstorm for tomorrow night into Monday morning.

I'm totally on board with this.

A PSA for St. Patrick's Day

People. Green beer is NOT IRISH. Drink a Guinness, a Harp, a Smithwick's, some good Irish whiskey...anything except green beer.

Keep the green in your clothing, not in your drink. That is all.

I now return you to your regularly scheduled St. Patrick's Day weekend. Slainte!

Weird

Okay. So who wants to tell me why a blog post I wrote almost six years ago about the Furry Convention in Pittsburgh is suddenly getting all kinds of hits?

Anyone???

Also, if anyone can tell me what happened to the writer guest blogs I had on here, I'd appreciate it. They seemed to have disappeared. Another mystery!

The Next Big Thing

Seems there's a little blog chain going around the internet called The Next Big Thing, where writers are supposed to answer ten questions about their book. I've been tagged by mystery author Linda Rodriguez. Thanks, Linda! You can click here to read her post and learn about her books.

Here goes!

1. What is your working title of your book?
     My working title is IN SPITE OF MURDER.

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?
     I worked as a police department secretary for ten years and people were constantly telling me to write a book with a PD secretary protagonist. When I lost that job, I figured I'd finally put that knowledge to good use.

3. What genre does your book fall under?
    It's a mystery. Not quite a cozy, as it has a bit of an edge. And it's funny. At least I hope it is.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
    This is the hardest question! Like Linda, I don't pay attention to most modern actors. My protagonist, Irma Jean, is a six foot tall red head with an attitude, so I imagine she'd be hard to cast. There are two actresses who might fit, but I don't know their names--one is on The Mentalist and the other was in That 70s Show. If Reba McEntire were younger and much taller, she'd be perfect. I'm not sure who I'd cast as Mama, either. I need a five foot tall 70 year old with a strawberry blonde beehive. No clue!

I can do better with the men in the book. Irma Jean's ex-husband Curley would be played by Bradley Cooper. I  have no idea who he is, but I saw his picture on the cover of a magazine in the checkout line once and almost blurted out, "That's Curley!"

And her hunky Irishman love interest, Luke Jameson, is a cross between Simon Baker and Keith Urban. How's that for a combination?

5. What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
    Police secretary Irma Jean Bennett's day is shot to hell when the Chief drops dead in her office. (I know that's not exactly a synopsis, but you get the idea.)

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
    I'm represented by the fabulous Eliza Dreier at the Carol Mann Agency. She'll be pitching it soon.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
    It's hard to say. I got the idea for it back in 2008 when I lost my job and I wrote a few chapters. Then I put it aside to revise and query another book, which didn't go anywhere. When I finally got serious about it, it didn't take very long to finish. Then I did more than a few revisions. I really have to give a shout out to my former agent, Meredith Barnes. The book is so much better after I made the changes she suggested.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
    It's not as over-the-top as Evanovich, but it's been compared to her books. I think it's more like Nancy Martin's Blackbird Sisters books--kind of cozyish, but not quite.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?
    Getting canned. Enough said.

10. What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?
    Can't you just take my word for it? No? Sigh. Well, it's funny, it's got some strange and quirky characters, and it takes place in a town named Spite. Oh, and I don't want to forget the hot Irishman.

Hey, I'm done! This wasn't so bad, after all!

Here are the authors I'm tagging. Be sure to go to their blogs NEXT WEEK and see their answers to these questions.

Annette Dashofy
Jenna Bennett/Jennie Bentley
C.L. Phillips

Thanks again, Linda! This was fun!

Where Were You?

It's hard to believe it's been 11 years since that terrible day in 2001. Just like previous generations who remember exactly where they were and what they were doing when Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941, or when President Kennedy was killed in 1963, most of us have 9/11/01 burned into our memories.

It began as a normal day. I was the secretary for my township police department and was just getting settled in. I logged onto my computer and sat down at my desk with a cup of coffee, then started organizing the police reports from the previous day so I could enter them into our database. The phone rang and when I answered it, one of the patrolman's wives said, "Quick. Turn on the TV."

I went out to the squad room where the TV was already on and tuned to one of the morning news shows. The first plane had already hit one of the towers and we all speculated on what had gone wrong with the jet. We thought it was a tragic accident--that the plane malfunctioned somehow. Terrorism never crossed our minds.

And then the world changed forever. While we watched, the second tower was hit. Then the Pentagon. Then Flight 93 was brought down only 90 miles away. The weeks that followed were a blur. We locked down the station. Keys were no longer left in the police cars in the lot. There were numerous phone calls of suspicious activity, suspicious persons, and suspicious packages and mail. The officers had to investigate them all.

When I look back now, it all seems a little unreal. Unfortunately, it wasn't.

What were you doing that day?  

So Funny

This is the funniest (and most realistic) take on publishing I've ever seen.

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2012/08/the-publishing-process-in-gif-form.html

Enjoy!

The Archive

My son, Andrew, the historian has started a blog (finally!). It's called The Archive. Check it out when you get a chance!

Nice Package Follow Up

In case you were following the saga of the crushed box from Cuisinart delivered by UPS, it's hopefully been resolved. Cuisinart had UPS pick up the package and should be sending a new Grind & Brew soon. In a non-crushed package. Fingers crossed.

Nice Package

My coffeemaker has been on the fritz (where did that expression come from, btw?) so I contacted Cuisinart since it was still under warranty. They were kind enough to send me a new one and requested that I send the old one back to them. In the box the new one arrived in.

Shouldn't be a problem, right? Except the one UPS delivered looks like this:

I'm guessing there's a good chance the brand new coffeemaker they sent me is no longer operational. My old one probably works better. I'm now waiting for Cuisinart to file a damage complaint with UPS so they can pick up the squished package. In the meantime, I'm giving daily CPR to the old coffeemaker and hoping it doesn't die completely.

I Found It!

Hubby and I took a little jaunt yesterday to the flea market in Hazen, PA. We didn't find anything at the flea market (nothing spectacular, anyway), but on the way we did. Hazen is located on Route 28 north about 90 miles from Pittsburgh. To get there, we always took Route 28, then I-80 for a couple of miles, then back on 28. This time we stayed on 28 and guess what?

I FOUND SPITE!

Well, not really, since the town of Spite exists only in my imagination. But pretty darn close. Route 28 goes through Brookville, PA and as soon as we rode down the hill and the town appeared before us, my jaw dropped. Seriously. The only other town that comes close is Ripley, WV, but I've only seen it in pictures.

On the way home from the flea market, I insisted we go back through Brookville and stop so I could take some pictures. I took these with my cell phone:

Courthouse in Brookville

If you add a portico with white columns and the word RESPITE above it, you'd have the Spite courthouse.

 

The main drag in Brookville

Take a look at the pictures on the links above for Brookville and Ripley and it'll give you a pretty good idea of how I imagine my town.


Have you ever gone anywhere that looked like a place that exists only in fiction? Tell me about it!