Oct. 20

They say October has the most birthdays of any month. In fact October 5th is the day with the most births. That is not hard to imagine considering that February is the conception month. When it's dull and grey and there's nothing to do well... babies are conceived.

Its something to think about when writing your characters-whether you set it in February or October.

What else causes a bump in births? Blackouts. Blizzards. War? Can you think of more? Cheers~

Oct. 19

Today was cold, windy with rain that fell thickly. Trees waved in the wind. Leaves swirled in tiny devils on the ground then stuck flat and wet to windows and doors. Birds hid in the remaining leafy trees and sang a song to brighten the day. A lone tree held tightly to its bright red leaves, the top most branches having lost their battle stood bare against the silver thick sky. The earth absorbed the water while the tiniest of creatures scurried to their winter dens.

Here in the USA we call this football weather or turkey weather. Time to gather inside with the warmth of the oven roasting full meals and the television blaring over the top of family chatter. We visit and root for our teams. We bake pies and cakes and goodies. We tell ghost stories and share our bounty. Deep fall is the storm before the cold when we are happy for the change of season before the darkness gets on our nerves and makes us dream of summer once more.

Oct. 18

Today's sky reminded me of winter. It was gray and thick with clouds. Winter clouds aren't like summer clouds-they have a silver quality to them that speaks of snow and cold. Lucky for us the surface temperature was too warm for snow. We had rain instead. It is only the middle of October, but the weather is showing warning signs of the weather to come. I heard it's still 100 degrees in Arizona. Funny to think they are still in the throws of summer while we are on the edge of winter. After living in the south Pacific for nearly two years I kind of like my four seasons. I may complain come March when it's still snowy, but I'd rather have four seasons than only one. How about you? Do you dream of a tropical island where the weather never changes?

Inquiring minds want to know. Cheers~

Oct. 17

I spoke to a dear friend this weekend. She, too, experienced a weird week last week - having seen both trouble with electronics and communications between people. So I know I was not the only one, and she lives hundreds of miles from me so it wasn't regional, either.

I spent the weekend having the most interesting time at a large tradeshow for my new job. The show itself was fun, it was the getting to and from that was interesting. I learned very quickly how to hail a cab. Having never done it in my life~ I can now say I'm no longer a beginner. Perhaps it was easy because I'm relatively tall and a red head with long arms. One God-send of a cabbie caught me running down a flight of steps and across a parking lot and still got me where I wanted to go. Now that's an eagle eye. I tipped him well.

In many ways I am Marlo Thomas in the big city. It is not safe for me. I'm too approachable- if that's possible. We won't talk about the lack of umbrella or raincoat as I ran from one train station to another downtown in a suit and heels. I feel so urban now. I wonder if I look "cool" and "polished," too~ LOL.

Nope I'm still me. What adventures did you have this weekend?

Oct. 14

Full moon week, is anyone else experiencing technical difficulty? Work computers have been on the blink. Communications with vendors is rough. Communications between people has been rough. Communication with my characters has been rough. I wonder if it's a sun spot or a planetary alignment or something. It is almost as if we are all in the Tower of Babel and something happened so that we are unable to truly understand each other. Or maybe this is the universe's way of making us all stop for a moment, take a deep breath, and come at things from a new and better angle. I like to order the chaos that is life. Reality doesn't allow for order, but I pretend that it does and that -like a story- life has it's own pattern all I have to do is figure it out.

I hope you all have a great weekend! Cheers~

Oct. 13

Today I walked little dog in the damp misty darkness. I noticed that the water droplets hung from the needles of the pine trees like tiny jewels. We arrived home damp but happy. I'm writing. Unfortunately I'm averaging three pages a day when I usually average ten. I suppose I should cut myself a break, but I find that I'm editing half of what I write-worried about my protagonist's "likeability." She is a bit snarky. I don't know if it's her or me but we are having trouble finding our rhythm. I find when this happens if I just keep at it, it does finally take care of itself.

How are you doing? Did you have a rainy day or sunshine? If you are a writer, how is the writing going for you? Ever have trouble getting started?

Cheers~

Oct. 12

Do you want to hear about my new job? I work with scientists. Yesterday they ran an experiment and I got to witness and photograph them as they did baseline drug testing, then "spilled" or in this case "poured" a powerful liquid drug on their hands and waited sixty seconds. Then they washed their hands carefully and after an two hours took a second drug test. Why? Because someone was using the reason they failed their drug test as they spilled the drug on their bare hand. As scientists, my employers didn't say- "that's ridiculous." What they said was, "Let's see if that could be true." Was it true? I don't know yet as the testing has to be done. All in all it makes life interesting when you work for people who say, "let's prove it."

Now, I'm wondering how I can write that into a book~ lol.

Do you know someone who's job is interesting to watch? Say a fudge maker? Jeweler? Painter? What do you like about watching them work?