Toréador, en garde!

I just read in the newspaper that Spanish national TV won't be showing bull fighting during the daytime anymore because they don't want children subjected to violence.
I can only agree the idea that bull fighting is a cruel and violent sport. But to say that taking it off TV will ensure children don't see violence astounds me. There is enough violence in cartoons to make me shudder. Bullfighting is nothing compared to a Mel Gibson movie.
While in Spain we saw several bull fights on TV. In one, the bull was pardoned - in other words, he was saved by the matador because the matador thought he fought so well he should live. So the bull was taken away, washed off, and taken back to his farm where he will become a breeding bull. Lucky for him. Most of the others end up as steaks. Bull fighting has existed as a sport since ancient times. In Crete the boys did gymnastics on their backs, in Greece they fought each other, in the Middle Ages they were pitted against dogs and bears. In Roman times gladiators fought them. Bulls are a symbol of strength. And the matador doesn't always win.




Toréador, en garde!Toréador! Toréador!

Et songe bien, oui, songe en combattant qu'un oeil noir te regarde

et que l'amour t'attend,

Toréador, l'amour, l'amour t'attend!

(Carmen, Act II)

The Night Zoo

The Night Zoo

There are only two zoos in the world that are open at night. One is in Singapor, the other is the Fuengirola zoo in Spain.

If you visit the link, be sure to look at the virtual visit - click on the map, you can look 180° around the area, and click on the camera icons for information about the animals in the zoo.

The Fuengirola zoo is another zoo without cages. The animals live in large, grassy areas with plenty of trees and water about. The settings are beautiful - actually, the whole zoo is gorgeous, and no detail is spared for animal or visitor. I was impressed at how clean the zoo was, and how healthy the animals appeared. Another first for a zoo - several different species live together in the same area, and we saw monkeys playing with a large hornbill, an otter playing with a water buffalo calf, and the cutest little baby orangutang in the world!

But what's magical is at night - when the sun sets, the zoo changes. The monkeys all curl up in trees to sleep - but the leopard and tiger wake up and start to roam. The deer and the alligators are on the move, and the creatures who were dozing are suddenly playing. The zoo has a show at night as well - called 'The Forest Clearing', it features trained owls and other creatures of the night. Then there was a musical presentation from an African group of musicians and dancers, with all the children invited to dance on the stage.

My pictures don't do justice to the zoo - here is one of one of the animal settings. My night photos didn't come out, because I didn't want to use a flash. My daughter shot this picture of a parrot and wanted me to include it in the blog!

If you're ever in this corner of the world, don't hesitate to go visit this tiny but beautiful zoo. It's right in the middle of the city, but once you step inside, you feel as if you're in a tropical jungle. And you must stay for the night - it's open until 1 a.m. during the summer months.

Queen Victoria's Railroad in Spain

Queen Victoria made a lot of railroads - and one of the most picturesque is in Spain. What happened was this: Queen Victoria wanted to see Ronda, but the roads were not safe (banditos and such) So she sent engineers and commissioned a railway to be built from Gibralter to Ronda. It's still in use today, and what is charming (besides the conductors in their red hats) are the stations - all Victorian style with the added touch of Spanish cafés and flowers.
We took the train from Gaucin and went up the mountains to a small town ( Benaoján) where we got out, had lunch, and took a walk. A lovely day!
The train tickets cost 2 euros for a two-way trip. The coach was modern and comfortable. The Gaucin train station is in the valley, and the drive down from Gaucin is spectacular. (Check your brakes before you start down the winding road...)


The views from the train were beautiful - tall mountains, steep gorges, cliffs, plains, and groves of cork oak and olive trees.

The stations are all painted white and ochre - the yellow ochre is famous and is called 'Ronda Yellow'. There is usually a small café tagged on to the station, where you can get a cold drink and relax in the shade.

Links:

http://www.andalucia.com/province/malaga/benaojan/home.htm

http://www.andalucia.com/province/malaga/home.htm

http://www.andalucia.com/gaucin/home.htm

Viva Espagna!

I probably spelled that wrong, lol.

Anyhow, I'm back!

The weather in Spain was lovely - hot and dry. Well, it always is in the south of Spain. From where we were, we could see Gibralter rising up in a sharp angle and just beyond it was the Africa with the Atlas mountains blue in the haze.

Here is a view coming down the hill toward the polo fields, with Gibralter in the background, and further on, the mountains of Africa.

To get to the polo fields, we had to cross a river, and the bridge was an interesting three-arched bridge designed by Gustave Eiffel - the same man who designed the Eiffel Tower in France.

And here is the Port of Duquesa, where we stayed. You can see the marina on the left and on the right, the beach. We had a good time not doing very much. I read a lot of books, I took a lot of walks on the beach, and we went to visit a friend in the mountains and went to see a very interesting zoo. I'll do a post about both those!

Spain is a wonderful country. Where we were on the coast it's very touristy, as you can imagine. There are lots of huge construction projects going on, and the coast, which used to be mostly fishing villages and farms, is being transformed into a paradise for golfers, retired folk, and English people. There were more English people in the village of Duquesa than Spanish. Almost all the shops were run by English ex-pats, who had moved from their country in search of sun and reasonable property prices. I was amazed by the change. I've been coming to the south of Spain for 26 years now, and it's day and night. Before, you had to look hard to find a restaurant - now they are all over, and there are Chinese, Indian, and Argentine restaurants as well as traditional Catalonian restaurants. (I do NOT recommend eating at a Chinese restaurant in Spain...) And there are souvenir shops everywhere, most souvenirs being made in China, alas. We went to the mountains to find a pottery shop, and we bought some fans. They are now in fashion - everywhere we went, pretty ladies had their fans!

Here is a pretty girl with a fan. We were at the Gaucin train station, getting ready to take a train to the mountains. It was a hot day, and women had their fans out. Most match their fans to their outfits. I saw many at the polo games with ropas (dresses) and abanitas (fans) that matched. It was quite chic. A nice fan made of light balsa wood and cotton, and hand painted, costs about 5 dollars. The more fancy ones were more expensive!

Another typical Spanish item is olive oil, but I didn't get any this trip -it's expensive when it's good quality. And there is also the Iberian smoked ham, which we eat with sliced melon.

Well, more about my Spanish trip tomorrow, with the story about Queen Victoria's train, and the trip to Gaucin and the mountains.

Adios!

Spain

I'm in Spain!
We're way down south, in a place called Puerto Duqueso. It's hot, dry, and dusty - and we're mostly hanging out and playing mah-jongg (my daughter insisted on bringing the set with us).
My husband is working, so we're living by his schedule. He works from 5 pm to about 10 pm - and in the morningm before noon, we go to the beach, and after he gets off work we go out for dinner and hang out at the docks. Puerto Duquesa is a big marina.
It's hot - so we mostly stay indoors actually.
We went to the mountain village of Gaucine to visit a friend, Karen, and that was lovely. The drive was hair-raising - all curves and mountains - but the view once there was breathtaking. We had a dinner of tapas outside, overlooking the gorge.
Tonight we're going to the zoo - it's open until 1 am - it's the Fueringola zoo, and we're looking forward to seeing the nocturnal animal exhibit.
I'll be back in France the 22 of Aug. and I'll post pictures!

Sam

Mah Jongg

Mah Jong every which way

family style

My daughter's stylish set

Porch style

Outdoor style

We've been playing all summer. I love the game, and my daughter is completely hooked.

You usually play with 4 people, but you can play with 3 or even 2. (Or 5 if you switch like in bridge). There are several ways to play it. The Chinese play it very much like gin rummy. The English have a whiole book of 'special hands', and my aunt, who taught us, learned the English way while she was living in China, lol.

The real difference is in the various 'hands'. They all have cool names, like 'Gerties Garters', and 'Heavenly Twins', or 'The Ruby hand', or 'Dragon's Breath'. There are three suits, (bams, cracks, and dots) and three dragons (red, white, and green) and the four winds (north, south, east, and west.)

The set-up is easy, once you get the hang of it. And playing is fun and for all ages.

We wanted to get a set, but they are hard to find. So this summer, I promised my daughter we'd take a trip to Chinatown in NYC and see if we could find one. We went down the last day of our visit, and stopped to see Sam, who offered to take us to Chinatown for lunch and help hunt down a set - so off we went. We had lunch in a Fabulous restaurant, I will definitely recommend it to anyone who loves Chinese food - it's called Shanghai Cuisine, and it's located at 89-91 Bayard street downtown Manhatten. (corner of Mulberry and Bayard). Everything we had was delicious - I can't say enough good things about that place.

Anyhow, after lunch we headed east, and hit a small street with some tiny shops, and Sam spotted a mahjongg set in the window! We went in, and the shop owner took down a box, opened it, and took out a huge wooden box with a dragon on it. She opened it, and my daughter gasped in delight. A lovely mah jongg set. My daughter asked the price, and her face crumpled It was expensive. I was just starting to tell the lady that we couldn't afford it, when Sam said, "Wrap it up! It's for her birthday!" My daughter was jumping with joy, and all I could think of was 'we are going to have to carry this 30 pound mah jongg set with us on the plane'. Actually, I was thrilled, and am planning on sending a care package to Sam, with some chocolate and some 'get skinny' tea - LOL!

My son managed to cram the box into our luggage, so all we had to do was wheel it around the airport. And now, every night, we play a few hands of mah jongg.

Last night I won with a hand called 5 odd honors.

:-)

Thank you Sam!!!!!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to me!

I'm 47 today - (I'll only admit to 35) and I mowed the lawn and lifted the old lady next door.

?

Yes, for the past few days I've been helping the nurse who takes care of the 104 yr old woman next door, because the nurse sprained her arm and can't lift her anymore. So I've been helping out. It's been an interesting experience. The woman in question (104 - that makes her 57 years older than I am) is deaf and cranky, and has slight dementia. Otherwise, she's in fine form. She can't walk, but she can complain - which according to the nurse, she does constantly. Today she complained I set her down too fast (I actually nearly rolled over with her onto the bed. She's heavy!) But she's strong, and she can usually hoist herself into her wheelchair, just not back into bed.

My son, who is a fireman, said that most of his missions are picking up elderly folk who have fallen down and can't get up. He told me to call him if the old woman got stuck. So far the nurse has managed on her own, until she sprained her arm.

The old woman saw me the first day and said, "Who's that?"

"La voisine!" (the neighbor) shouted the nurse. (she has to shout, as the old lady is deaf as my dachshund when he's decided he wants to stay in bed.)

"Justine?"

"No, la voisine!"

"Oh. Bonjour Justine."

"No, pas Justine. Ta voisine! She's here to help!"

The old lady calls me Justine now, and complains that I don't lift her high enough to get her situated right in bed.

According to the nurse, she's being difficult because she refuses to let the nurse lift her with this handy contraption that would make life considerably easier for everyone. But the old lady refuses, and so the poor nurse has to come knocking at my door every morning and evening to get the old woman set up right.

Next week a new nurse is coming, and I'm leaving on vacation, but my son said he'd be standing by in case she needs lifting, so don't anyone worry.

:-)

Vacation!

Vacation!

I love summer vacation. I love not having a schedule. I dont have to worry about forgetting appointments, getting days mixed up (they're all the same during summer!) and setting the alarm wrong. I feel free. I just took my daughter to the dentist today for her monthly checkup for her braces, and the dentist remarked at how relaxed and happy I looked. Thinking about schedules must put lines on my face. Oh well. I still have a month left. So what am I up to? I'm headed to the south of Spain, where I will try to catch up on my reading.
Books I've read so far this summer:
The Coal Black Horse (fabulous)
Killer Angels (even more fabulous)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows (made my plane trip home so much more fun)
And a couple of decent books by good authors, but I've forgotten the titles, sorry.
Some photos of this summer:

At the military cemetery in Saratoga, where my father is buried.

Here is my daughter fishing at the lake at my uncle's camp.

This is a photo taken at the cemetery at Gettysburg.

Me holding my niece, and my mom, in her new house. We have to strip the wallpaper and paint this room, but the woodwork is done.

New York

I just got back from the lake. A lovely vacation with no computers, TV, e-mail, or any loud noises except the truck that started up every morning at 6 am when the neighbor went to work. And that was fine because at five we were up, drinking gourmet coffee, and sitting on the porch (or sitting in the canoe) admiring the silvery lake.
My sister and her husband own a restaurant and they came laden with food - and so we had wonderful dinners every night. My cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents all came to see us, and we fished, played mah jongg, and walked around the lake. And that was it. And it was heaven.
Now I have sporadic internet use - I'm at my mom's house for a week. Next Monday I'm going to Pennsylvania for a few days. I've never visited Gettysburg, and that's where we're headed for some historical events. My daughter and I are watching the TV series 'Gettysburg' that we rented from the library in anticipation of our trip. We're going with my school chum Debbie, whom I haven't seen in over 15 years!! I hope she recognises me.
;-)
I haven't had time to work, and I'm falling woefully behind. But I do have two new books out - Hotline - over at total-e-bound books, and My Fair Pixie is now in print in an anthology called Lady Jaided's Virile Vampires.
If I had more time I'd add links and such, but I'm headed out the door to help my mom with her new house. We just got the dry wall up, it's alnost all taped, and we'll start priming soon.
Got to run!
I'll write more later!

More about e-books & stuffed animals

I have discovered something terrific with Adobe Reader! They have a wonderful full screen option. But it's hard to find. When you open the pdf file, look at the very bottom left hand corner. (Yes - LEFT - I made sure, lol.) Bottom. Small icon, looks like a TV screen. When you hover over it, it says 'Full Screen View'. Click on it, and the result is a GREAT page for reading e-books, similar to the microsoft reader page.
I'm amazed. I never noticed that before. That'll teach me to read directions.

I am packed. My suitcase, though small and complete with wheels, weighs a ton because of all the French soaps I'm bringing back with me. French soaps are really nice. But they're heavy.

My daughter's suitcase (a school bookbag with wheels) is packed too. She is bringing her stuffed bunny with her. The bunny has been travelling back and forth with her since she was six. My son Sebi has a small stuffed seal called Lightning. He still has it, (he's 21 and he got the seal when he was 3). He's carried the seal back and forth from France to the US, to Argentina, and England. Lightning was once forgotten in the stables, and a big white horse named Ajax 'took care of him'. (My son had left him in the horse's stall during a game of hide and seek when the grooms had taken all the horses out to exercise.) Sebi was always attached to his stuffed animals. He had a stuffed rabbit named 'Apple' and a sort of yellow monkey named 'Saucisson'. Apple, Lightning, and Saucisson went everywhere with us for years and years. And my son still has, like I said, Lightning the small seal. (And like the old rocking horse in the Velveteen Rabbit, his eyes are gone, his nose has been rubbed off, and his fur has gone bald in spots - but he's still perched next to my son's bed.)
My daughter's bunny 'Jumper' is rag-worn, shapeless, and his ears have been sewn back on twice. But she loves him. She loves him better than the plush, new stuffed animals she got for Christmas or her birthday last year. Like Sebi, who pushed away a brand new rabbit with howls of "I want my Old Bunny Back!" when Apple was lost, my daughter prefers her careworn creature.
She looks at Jumper through eyes of love.

Packing

I'm finally packing for NY. Well, actually, I already finished. I pack in about three minutes. Then I leave the suitcase at the foot of the stairs and add things to it as I remember them. My daughter still hasn't packed, but she's said to me at least a hundred times, 'I wish I was in NY already!'. She's tired of school. In France, we have the longest school day of all European countries, and yet we're not the top performer - Finland is with the shortest day of all European schools, but they have a higher teachers per student ratio, and they offer lots of after school tutoring. My daughter loved the Finnish school system (she went there on a class trip). I wish they would shorten the school day here, but although our new president has said he wants to reform the education system, there haven't been any concrete propositions.
I haven't been blogging much - sorry. Busy with the garden (summer means lots of work outside - I love it!) And my son is on vacation from the university, so that means he's often on the computer during the day. I've been busy with Calderwood Books (and again, loving it. I enjoy reading the query letters and delving into the slush pile. I'm still excited about finding new books. I am waiting for one author to send in his contract, but he's hesitating because he's not sure he really wants to publish an e-book (he's holding out for a bigger publisher). In one way I'm disappointed. I fished his book out of the slush pile and loved it. But I understand an author's reticence. E-books don't have the best reputation of making tons of money for an author. And as much as I try to say that regular books don't do much better, it's true that even a small advance is often more than an e-book ever earns out over its lifetime.
I keep hoping that there will come an inexpensive and perfomant e-book reader. I think that books DO pollute. The industry is terribly wasteful. (But most industies are, come to think of it.) E-books are a good economic and ecological choice, but it's hard reading on a computer, even a laptop, and not many people have e-book readers yet.
I keep hoping...
And hoping.
A good, cheap e-book reader.
No bells and whistles.
Just a paperback size.
Thin, with good lighting.
Able to read several file formats.
Rechargeable battery with a long charge.
And then e-books will finally catch on. Imagine, you can carry a whole library in your pocket!
OK - time for lunch.

Dyslexia

I was writing some letters to find review sites for Calderwood Books. I have to run them through the spell checker because I'm a terrible speller. When I concentrate, I can usually spell most words right. Some I can never get right, so I avoid them. Mideival is one. I write it at least three ways before giving up and putting in Middle Ages. I have LOTS of words on my 'can never spell' list. And yet, I look the word up. I will spell it right by accident, then delete it because it doesn't look right. But I can't remember it.
I also can't tell my left from my right. I'm clumsy, bang into things a lot, and although I speak French, I'll never learn to write it. I'm dyslexic. It runs in the family. My mother can't tell her left from her right, and my daughter is so dylexic she didn't learn to read until she was 7, and she had to go to an orthophonist to learn to 'see' the difference between a d and a b. It was slow going. At first, she was at the bottom of her class. The school had a special teacher come in twice a week to work with her for almost two years, and her teachers only gave her half the amount of homework the other kids got. And yet, no one ever scolded her or told her she was 'slow'. We explained to her what dyslexia was, and told her she had to learn to live with it. She did, and now she's third in her class and has excellent grades. She's doing so well, we're thinking of putting her in a more challenging school. She wants to be a veterinarian. We're very proud of her. She worked hard and it paid off. She never got discouraged, and her teachers were all great and encouraged her to do her best.
My dyslexia never kept me from reading, although it does hamper my spelling, and if I meet a new word it takes me a while to get used to it. The best thing to happen to me as a kid was to be crazy about dinosaurs. Sounding out and then memorizing their long names helped tame my fear of multi-syllable words. I was never very good at sports - for some reason I can never catch a ball. I'm not great in math. I turn left when someone says 'go right!' and it took me years to catch the notion of 'early' VS 'late'. Time really does have no meaning for me. My most important helpers are my watch, my calendar, and my weekly planner. I use color-coded stickers, and yet I'm always forgetting what day it is, and when my friends invite me for lunch, they know they have to call me in the morning to make sure I don't forget. I didn't forget, I just don't know what day it is!
Weekends are the only times I feel like I can relax. There's no school, no schedule, no lessons, no lunches. And yet, I love having a full schedule. The more I do, the more energy I have. But sometimes I wish I could be organized. I wish I could put everything in neat piles, fold clothes (I can't fold clothes) and just organize my house. I know where everything is, but it looks like a rat's nest. But I am incapable of organizing my space. Dyslexia, for me, means having no concept of left-right, up-down, straight or crooked. I have three calendars on my desk, a yearly, a weekly, and a monthly. And I still get things wrong. Last week I arrived at the dentist a day early. (At least it wasn't a day late!)
Anyway, For those without dyslexia, it must be frustrating to deal with us sometimes. My husband mostly laughs it off, but he can't understand how I can get lost going somewhere I've been at least thirty times before. My sons can't understand how I can always be late picking them up from school. We don't do it on purpose. I look at my watch and see 'quarter to' instead of 'quarter past'.
Which reminds me - time to go to the pony club picnic! I'm riding today and my daughter is already mortified, just sure I'll fall off and humiliate her. I will be sure to get pictures if I do!
;-)

my rugby man calendar

When I went to play golf the other day, my daughter and her friends examined my rugby man calendar with much interest. I know because they hung it back up with Mr. September in view, instead of Mr. June. I suppose it might shock some people to see my 'nekkid guys' hanging on the wall but I've never thought of nudity as something shameful. In fact, I love the human body, even when it's not perfect. (But the rugby men are pretty near perfect, lol.)

Authors, pay attention!

Authors, pay attention.

I have been reading the slush pile again, and here are the problems I found. One book had too many heroes. The story was well written. I was hooked right away by a lovely description and some interesting action. And then the story went awry. Every character was a hero. The family - father, mother, and baby were all equally important. The neighbor's family - father, mother, and baby were important! And the secondary characters kept taking over the action.
If you have several heroes (thinking of Lord of the Rings here) then you need a strong, simple framework to carry them. The story has to be simple. "Take Ring To Volcano". What is simpler than that? Then you can have several different heroes. But be careful - don't overwhelm the reader. Each hero has his chapter. Each chapter has its structure. In the book I just pulled from the slushpile, the plot is complicated, the characters many, and I cannot get attached to any of them. I'm Overwhelmed.
I pulled a second book out of the slush pile. I read three chapters. Not once did I get into any of the character's heads. It was written in what I call third person omniscient. It's a good way to start a novel because you can introduce the setting and characters quickly. But it puts a certain distance between the reader and the characters because you're never deeply in their heads. So I read on, hoping that the second chapter would give me a clue as to who the hero was, and on to the third chapter, where the tone stayed the same. Good, clear writing. No connection at all with the characters. I needed a hero I could connect with, and I got comments on the weather.
POV is terribly important. Head-hopping is not bad if it does not confuse the reader, but it's a rare author who can pull it off. When I read the slush pile, I'm aware that most of the authors are just starting out. That's why we try to make our rejection letters as constructive as possible. We also invite the autors to resubmit if we like their writing and think they can fix the problems. Sometimes they are OK with our suggestions, and sometimes not. It's up to them. But I've never subbed a book anywhere without knowing that it will have to be edited. And my goal is to make the editor's job as easy as possible, and authors should keep this in the back of their minds. Their books WILL need editing. If the book needs too much, we can't afford it. Time is money, as they say, and if the book takes too long to edit, it's not worth it. So pay particular atention to POV. And count your heroes. (And heroines.)

Been Busy

Good news! My son passed his exams and he's admitted to the second year in his university. In France the universities are free, which means there are a lot of students in the first year. You have to pass tough exams to go on to the second year, and only 30% are admitted directly, so we're proud of him!

You know how it is. The calendar starts filling up, the days becoming crammed with appointments and 'things to do'. I'm leaving for the US on the 22nd, and suddenly there is a ton of stuff I have to take care of before I go. And then my husband got his job in Spain, so we'll be there for the whole month of August, and that means more frantic organising as I realize I'll probably be without internet for that whole time. (*gasp!*)

I threw a birthday party for my husband Wednesday and we had a great time. A golf tournament followed by dinner. The weather was wonderful, and we all had a great time.

My car, however, is falling apart bit by bit. It doesn't start well, the window is broken (it fell over when I lowered it the other day, and I had to prop it back up and close it to keep it from falling out again. Now I have to be careful not to open it. It's aslo making strange noises. I'm glad my husband got the job in Spain - it's paid well and hopefully we'll be able to get another car when we get back in September. Argh. As my son once said, 'Why does everything have to cost so much?' He was four at the time and was trying to buy an expensive stuffed hedgehog with only fifty pence - but I know exactly what he was feeling.

Happy French Mother's Day!

I had a lovely day. I spent it with good friends, in the sunshine, with lots of wine and song...Well, not any songs, actually, the group was not very musical, but it was a lot of fun.

When I got home, I found my son had made a batch of chocolate chip cookies!!!

(Happy Mother's Day?)

I ate two.

Yesterday there was a small tournament nearby. There were knights in shining armor, flags, a tavern (a tent, but it was quaint.) And there were people in costume but I didn't get a photo because my batteries wore out. Argh. I wanted a picture of the little boy in the musketeer outfit, complete with plumed hat and cape! It was very hot, so we didn't stay long. But isn't the barn fascinating?

Ye olde barn with ye strangely shaped round roof. (Probably an old pigeon coop)

Ye Olde Taverne (Perrier & Mead)

Applauding the winners

City life, country life

I used to live in the city. I was in NYC before I moved to Paris. In my apartment building, most people knew each other and said hello if they passed each other in the halls or in the elevator, but that was it. In Paris, we hardly spoke at all. I lived in my Paris apartment for three years and never saw my neighbors. In Lyon, it was a much more friendly. We had dinners with our neighbors, our kids walked to school together, and the mothers left the strollers in the nook next to the elevator. The apartment in Lyon was a big complex, with a pool, a park, and a wonderful view over the valley. Unfortunately, my husband couln't find work nearby, so we moved back to the Paris region.
We found a small house in a tiny village. I was used to city life, so I didn't rush out and knock on my neighbor's doors to introduce myself. My daughter, age 5, had no such qualms, and knocked on Everyone's door, so soon everyone knew us. I was used to a friendly nod as I passed a neighbor. Here, you stop and chat about the weather. I was also used to not knowing anyone, and not really paying attention to the poeple around me. What was considered polite in the big city was considered rude and stand-offish here. I had to learn to 'chat'. It was not easy.
Some of the people in this village have been here for generations. Their grandparents and great-great-ever-so-great grandparents lived here. Some just arrived, like us. The locals are friendly, but seem to have a rivalry between themselves. There is a veritable war going on between the two egg farmers, for example, and between the people on the hillside and the people on the valley side there is a sort of constant snipping. It's a war that has been going on for ages, I suppose. The village is divided into clans. The village fête commitee, for example, imploded because of the clan war, and they had to elect a whole new village fête commitee.
It may sound trite, but the people who live here and whose families have lived here for centuries, remind me of goldfish in a bowl sometimes. They peer out at the world, but to them, this village is their world.
For someone who has moved from one hemisphere to the next throughout her life, it's very strange. I can't imagine being so rooted to one place.
Recently the war escalated into a nasty graffiti written on the walls of a new house. The house was new - the family in it was one of the village's own. But the house was built on a spot of land that for a long time had been declared non constructable, the law (somehow) changed, and the house was built, which angered more than one person, obviously. Someone wrote a nasty slogan on the wall. The mayor issued a bulletin. People clucked and shook their heads. But for me it's obvious that the war is simply continuing along age-old lines. The hill people against the valley people, jealousy sprouting from a building permit and a covetted peice of property.
Does it make me wish I was back in the city?
No. Not at all. The villagers have drawn their lines of battle, but I'm not a villager. And most of them are caring, wonderful people. Graffiti is cruel, and the words were mean, but not harmful. And I'm pretty sure things will be smoothed out. Perhaps another building permit on another peice of land. We'll see. Life in a small village is never boring, despite what you may think.
I just have to be careful to buy my eggs from both farmers.

Future love by Summer Devon

I needed a break. The weather here has been dreadful, just like November, dark, dreary, and cold. Rain pounding off the roof - and there was no escape, except into another world.

So I opened Summer's book, 'Future Love', and was transported.

It's a deceptively simple tale. Man from the future goes back in time and meets a contemporary woman - they fall in love. But it's a complex story that had me laughing, sighing, and reading 'til the wee hours to find out what happened next. It made me think a little of Kurt Vonnegut's 'Welcome to the Monkey House', because in the future, sex is suppressed. So our future stud, Collins, has never made love before. He thinks it's an aberation to make love - chemicals control hormones and everyone is smooth and hairless, and sexless. But he is sent back by accident by a group of future terrorists. And this is where the story has it's extra depth. There is suspense and action as well as love because the terrorists are out to get him, and he has a mission to accomplish.

Candy, the heroine, is a nice modern girl. In the beginning I was prepared not to like her, because she shows a certain lack of judgement when she invites the strange man into her house; but hey, it's fiction, and besides, the heroine is not a push-over. She's got a great personality and she's a genuinely caring person. She behaves like a normal person, which is refreshing in a romance book. I really get to like her, and I LOVE how she teaches Collins a thing or two about sex. :-)

Collins is a great hero. I think I fell in love with him myself. As an extra bonus, Summer writes some of the steamiest love scenes I've read in ages!

So if you want a book that will brighten a gray day, warm your heart (and the rest of you) make you smile and fall in love, get Summer Devon's 'Future Love'. You can buy it HERE. from Ellora's Cave.

Hey Mikey, she likes me!

Mrs. Giggles reviewed 'My Fair Pixie' and gave it a Great review.
You can read the whole thing HERE, but here is the end quote which I will now tattoo on my left shoulder...

"...I have to hand it to author Samantha Winston - My Fair Pixie is splendorous laugh-a-minute affair that is so naughty all over the place and so unexpectedly tender at other places. This is simply fabulous fun from start to finish. Love it, love it, love it!"

Rating: 92

Well, actually, I'm really pleased she liked it. She has reviewed another book of mine a few years ago and didn't like it - but you know what they say - no publicity is bad publicity. (Or do they say something else?) At any rate, doing a little happy dance in the rain here (well, until Mrs. Giggles reviews another book and gives it a 02, lol. You know, life is short, so I will dance to a good review while I can!)

First Lines by the dozen & a dilemma

A dozen first lines from my erotic books:

1: Princess Shari gave a very unladylike curse as her private spaceship, the SS Marissa, hit a zone of turbulence due to a small, magnetic storm.
(The Frog Prince from Planet Marecage - Ellora's Cave)

2: The centaur was dreaming again.
(Paradise Earth II Revelations - Changeling Press)

3: He had blond hair, bleached almost white by salt water, and turquoise chips for eyes.
(Virtual Murder - Loose Id)

4: The nurse in charge of freezing my molecules inserted a glowing needle into my arm and had
me count backwards from ten.
(Angels on Crusade - Cerridwen Press)

5: The Scottish landscape rolled by.
(Battle's bride - Loose Id)

6: Steele heard a steady thumping first.
(Time Tracker - Loose Id)

7: “Your bath is ready, my lord.”
(Diamina - Ellora's Cave)

8: Darla Rooderville stared at her best friend in disbelief.
(Darla's Valentine - Simon and Schuster or Ellora's Cave)

9: The dangerous part was next.
(Renegade Aquarius - Ellora's Cave)

10:Agony unlike anything he’d ever felt tore through his body.
(Llewellyn's Song - Ellora's Cave)

11: Mitch stared at his huge cock.
(The Phallus from Dallas - Ellora's Cave)

12: What does a five hundred year old, incredibly cultured male vampire want?
(My Fair Pixie - Ellora's Cave)

The dilemma:

I was thinking of getting business cards for Calderwood. I want to stress the fact that e-books don't pollute. No trees are killed, no fuel is burned transporting the books, no chemical inks are used...but if I order business cards made from paper and shipped from the US, I'm polluting.

I thought I'd send these virtual business cards to the Calderwood authors so they can use them in their e-mails or print them out themselves. What do you think?

Stormy weather

After a hot and muggy week, the storms have moved in.
Time to get to my TBR pile, starting with Summer Devon's book. (Review next week!)
Also in line are two Terry Pratchett novels: Soul Music and The Truth, and a Colin Bateman novel: Turbulent Priests.
So think of me curled up in my chair (or reading on my computer) while the clouds darken the sky and sheets of rain pour off my roof. The trees are wet and shiny, the flowers have shredded like crepe paper, and the dogs sit next to the door and sigh loudly, wet paw marks showing that they've been outside this morning. Last night the electricity went off twice, but came back on before we had time to find the matches to light our candles. Bright puddles greeted me when I went outside to take the garbage out this morning, and my yellow roses have lost their fragile petals to the driving rain.
But I bet it makes all the seeds I planted grow!
:-)

New hat day.

Today I bought a new hat. It's a summer tradition with me, and since the weather has been so warm I bought it early. I had to go to the doctor for my yearly check-up, and since I was early, I parked by the church and took a stroll through the town of Montfort L'Amaury. Go check out the link, there are some nice pictures of the village, which dates back to the Middle Ages. As I was walking through the town, I saw a small shop with hats in the window. I went in, and fell in love with this one.
I've bought a new hat every year since I can remember. It can be straw, or cloth, or a cap, or whatever. Last year's hat was a floppy red cloth hat. The year before it was an even floppier pink hat made with woven yarn, and the year before that, it was a straw hat with a green ribbon.

This year, I found a hat with a buckle on it. It's a beige hat, which is nice because it 'goes' with everything. (Ever the fashion victim here...)

My new hat is chic.

Rusty and Auguste like it.

Here is a great site:

http://www.st-pierre-montfort-l-amaury.fr/st_pierre_de_montfort_plan.html

It's the plan for the church in Montfort, showing the stained glass windows in detail, if you click on the names of the windows, and then on the small icons, you get some lovely pictures of the windows, which were made in the 13th and 14th centuries. (The church and village are classified as historical monuments).

Is there something that you do that marks the begining of summer?

Garden day

Yesterday, I took the clippers out and started to trip the forsythia bush in the front lawn. It had gotten so big it was taking over the small space. My husband ended up cutting it ALL back, now there is just a stump. It will grow back, never fear - and it will be a nice, tame bush for a couple years.

But I ended up weeding, raking, planting and trimming. I itched all night with bug bites and nettle stings. Here is a picture of the space where the tree was, and the stump with a boar's skull on it (very Lord of the Flies). (Or redneck - whatever.)

But after the flowers I planted grow, this will be a mass of bright colors (I made sure to add marigolds to the seed mix - if nothing else grows, they will, lol.)

Then today, I started to mow the lawn in the back, and since I can't start something and not finish, I finished the whole lawn, then weedwhacked, trimmed, weeded, and cut the nettles under the fig tree. Now I am again covered with nettle rash and bug bites, and looking forward to another night tossing and turning...and itching. But doesn't the garden look nice?

Flying

I took my son to the airport yesterday. He was supposed to be leaving with Tony - who lives next to us and who wanted to go to the US this summer. But Tony's passport was expired, so we ended up trying to figure out how soon he would be able to get a new passport, how to change his ticket, and all those fun things you do when a wrench gets thrown into the machine.
Passport - The US only accepts machine readable passports now, so Tony needs to get a new passport. It takes two weeks.
Plane Ticket - He has to pay a 100 euro penalty in order to change the date. I hope he can get a flexible date, because the passport can take longer than 2 weeks.
My daughter and I are going to the states on June 22, and I checked our passports. They are fine.
I missed my plane once. (overslept)
Twice I arrived very, very late, and the plane was held up while I dashed to the gate.
Once the plane was already on the runway, and they stopped it and let me get on. (At a small airport)
Once the radio wasn't working and everyone had to get off and get on a new plane.
Once the brakes didn't work, and we had to wait in the airport while they got fixed - and they we watched as they took off and landed our plane three times in a row.
Once we had an emergency landing. We ditched the fuel, turned around to land back at the ariport we'd just left, and there were eight fire trucks driving along the runway as we landed.
Once we had a bomb scare and everyone was taken off the plane by policemen with machine guns and dogs, and we stood on the tarmac a distance from the plane while the police emptied the baggage and the dogs sniffed everything.
Once I was in a brand new plane. It was for a short flight from Paris to London. I was reading a newspaper, and it said that the plane I was in had been taken off the long distance lines because it did unexpected barrel rolls. I asked the stewardess if that was true, and she said "Yes, so don't unfasten your seatbelt."
Ha ha.
Once I met a man in the plane, and somehow he found out it was my birthday. (I think it was when I was filling out the custom's form with my passport.) He asked the stewardess to get me a peice of cake with a candle and a glass of champagne while I slept. When I woke up, she brought it to me. I was really touched.
The man was from Brazil. I didn't speak Portugese and he ddin't speak English. We had some trouble communicating, but this is what I found out. He was coming to Paris because his son had been killed in an accident. His son had been working on a construction site in Paris. I knew a Brazilian woman who lived in Paris, so I called her when I got to the airport and I took a taxi with the man to her house. She took care of him during the time he was in Paris. She took him to the Brazilian embassy and helped him get everything organized. She made sure he was never alone. Before he left, we had dinner together and he gave me a good luck charm.
I still have it.

Goodbye Miss Snark!

It looks like an icon will be hanging up her stilettos. Miss Snark has announced she's stopping her blog.
Aspiring writers everywhere will miss her wry comments, Snarkisms, Snarklings, and Killer Yapp. (And George Clooney. Whatever else you can say about Miss Snark - she has good taste in men!)
I'll miss the cocking of the clue gun, but I suppose that if you go through the archives, she's probably answered every question there is about finding an agent. She will leave the blog up, so the archives will be available (thank you, Miss Snark!)
I like the fact that she managed to remain anonymous in the small workd of publishing. (How did she manage that?) I think she might have had secret agent training...
And I loved the contests (so many talented people read her blog) and I found new friends in the comment section (waving to Bernita, Orion, and many, many more.)
I will miss checking on the 'nitwit of the day', and hearing about Killer Yapp.
I can't imagine anyone taking her place!
Goodbye Miss Snark!

The social butterfly

The social butterfly flutters from party to party, wings flashing, bright colors alluring, but insubstantial and ultimately short lived.
I can understand the short lived part. After three days with three dinners, two lunches, a play, and a party, I'm feeling decidedly run down. The butterfly's colors have faded, she can hardly move her wings. And I drank a bit too much wine last night, so this butterfly is looking for some Alka Seltzer as well.
I'm not a social butterfly by nature. But I do have fun at parties and I love having friends over for lunch and dinner. I really do love stopping in for a cup of tea and chatting with my neighbors. But it takes a lot out of me. Last night was lovely. I met interesting people at a famous writer's house (Jeanne Champion) and listened while Ms. Champion read passages from her latest book She gave me a copy, so my TBR pile has just grown another inch.
Yesterday afternoon I had a wonderful 'girls' lunch with Andrea, Corinne, and Anne Marie. I made crab quiche and salad, and Corinne bought her famous cheesecake. And before that, I had a dinner in Paris, a party in a nearby village, a family lunch, and my daughter was in a play!
Tomorrow I'm taking my son to the airport. His visit is already over. It was a whirlwind of lunches and dinners, and already it seems like a dream. I wanted to sit down and talk to him, and hardly got time to do that. I suppose today we'll have some time. (I hope). Social butterflies must make terrible mothers.
I am going to take my wings off, fold them, and put them away.
And find some Alka Selter.

Thinking Blog!

My blog was chosen by Rosie as a thinking blog!

(Sung to the tune of 'Mine eyes have seen the Glory...')

My blog has had the honor of being chosen by Rosie

It's now officially official that my blog is thinkerly

I'm thrilled amazed delighted and quite pleased she thought of me,

Truth is I'm not that smart!

;-)

The participation rules are simple:
1. If, and only if, you get tagged, write a post with links to 5 blogs that make you think,
2. Link to this post so that people can easily find the exact origin of the meme,
3. Optional: Proudly display the 'Thinking Blogger Award' with a link to the post that you wrote. Here is an alternative silver version if gold doesn't fit your blog.
(Optional, what do you mean, optional?)

So here are my five blogs:

Chez Flo (chroniqeuses sans tabou!) A very interesting blog by my friend Flo, who loves to chat about politics, movies, and things happening in France and the rest of the world. (plus it's in French, so it really makes me think as I have to read slower and translate it, lol)
Kate R (I think we were twins separated at birth, but that's not why I picked her.) She's just cool and always has something interesting to say.)
Doug - if Doug doesn't make you think, (and laugh) then nobody can. :-)

Rhian has such a cool life and meets such cool people, that I wish I could switch places with her for a couple days (weeks, years, lol!)
John Nez - artist, illustrator, and all around nice guy.
And I could easily go on and on, and post all the blogs I have linked on my side, because they all make me think, laugh, and wish they were my neighbors so I could drop by for a cup of tea and a long chat.

The tortured hero

Bernita's got a blog post about the tortured hero. (and also about the 'Big Secret' often used in the heroine's past, which often, as Bernita so succintly puts it, turns out to be bathos.
(Love that word, lol.)
December chimed in saying she loved the tortured hero, and I have to admit, that to a certain extent, so do I. (Heathcliff, anyone?) However, there are tortures and tortures, and Bernita is right when she says she'd like to see more heros with a problem past who turned out to be perfectly normal. Hallelujah! I have been thinking the same thing.

I was thinking that because my daughter is in seventh grade. (12) Age of rampant hormones and trying to learn all about algebra and human relations at once. Suddenly words like prostitute are heard at the dinner table, as questions come from left field. What is the difference between a prostute and a whore and a bitch? my daughter wanted to know today at lunch. Turns out several boys in her class have started calling all the girls whores. My first reaction is anger - who called my daughter a whore? I will knock his new teeth out. Then I realize the kid is 12, like my daughter, and probably is having the same sort of identity crisis and vocabulary crisis to go along with it. And all these kids come home with tragic looks on their faces. "Mom, so and so did (said) this to me!" And it's a Drama each evening, and each day they start anew. High drama in the junior high. I admire the teachers who have to navigate the teens through this difficult period.
And the drama often reminds me of the tortured heros and neurotic heroines I sometimes come across in books. The hero who can't stop insulting women. The heroine for whom every set back means a torrent of tears. I think it's because romance heros and heroines tend to be young.
Sometimes, as with my daughter, I wish they would grow up though.
:-)

Happy Birthday, Husband!

Stef in 1980, in Holland.

Yes, it's my husband's birthday. He's one year older, one year better (as I like to think) and one year younger (as Andrea's brother Pablo says. Smooches to Pablo!
We met at the polo club. I watched him play the first weekend, but didn't get to meet him. He broke his arm the next week, and so I got talk to him. Well, sort of talk. My French was limited to 'left, right, and fall down'. His English was what he'd picked up in highschool. (Actually not so bad. And we didn't fight for YEARS - I'd start shouting in English, and he'd look at me and say, Doing de doing de doing." His imitation of a mad American. )

My sister was visiting me, so she was out chaperon for about a month. Stef told me later he tried everything to ditch the sister - but nothing worked, lol. Finally, in desperation, he asked me to visit him in Deauville where he was playing polo. He got his cousin Florence to drive me. I brought my friend with me (Andie MacDowell), and we spent three weeks in Deauville, in freezing cold weather. August in Deauville, and we didn't take off our jackets!

We've been together since 1979, and I'm still crazy about my guy.
Happy Birthday Stef!

Andie, Stef, and me at the polo field in Deauville. It was cold that month!

Stef and me in Florida in 1980.

Stef with our daughter at the cross country course this year.

Fish out of Water

I got an e-mail the other day from a girl I knew in junior high school. We were in the same class for a couple years when we lived in St. Thomas. We were good friends for the short time we knew each other. Her house was so incredible it left a lasting impression on me. I used it for a setting in one of my short stories - The Devil in Me. I mentioned this when I wrote back to her, and she asked to read the story, so I sent her the link.

She sent me back a letter saying, " I miss that island understanding. I still feel like a fish out of water here in the States. Though the last time I went to St. Thomas ('98 for 4 weeks on vacation) it didn't feel like home anymore either. "

It got me thinking. I always feel like a fish out of water, no matter where I am. I never felt like I belonged in St. Thomas (or I'd still be there) or in the States, or even in Europe. I love it here, and I am perfectly happy no matter where I am (Village Idiots 'R Us) but I definitely feel like a fish out of water. I'm happy, and I feel content to be wherever I am, but no matter where I am, I have the impression that I'm a blue guppy in a bowl of goldfish.

I was about to write back to her that I was sure Everyone felt that way. But I'm suddenly not so sure. My neighbor brought my dogs back this morning (they got out of the garden and happily accompanied him on his rounds at the farm. He let them follow him, then brought them back. Auguste and Rusty were thrilled. A walk! A new friend!) I asked him if he ever thought of living anywhere else but here, and he looked at me like I was a...fish flopping on the bank of a pond, and shook his head. "Nope."

So maybe my friend and I are the only ones who feel that we are fish out of water, no matter where we are. What about you? Do you sometimes feel like you're a fish out of water? Or are you, like my neighbor, comfortable in your environment?

Allergies again

It must have been from working in the garden. I was Overcome by my allergies. I had an earache, a stuffed head, my eyes stung, I kept sneezing, I was miserable.
The funny thing is, I don't remember having allergies as a kid. Then again, I was always sick with a sore throat or earache, and according to my doctor here, it could have been allergies. When I lived in St. Thomas, there wasn't the same sort of pollen, so I never noticed. The worst was when I was in Argentina one spring. I had terrible allergies and spent most nights chugging down cough medicine, thinking it was bronchitis.
Now I know what it is, (I have the most common of allergies - grass pollen and tree pollen.) and I have my miracle pills. They take away the sneezing, the earache, the sore throat, the runny eyes and nose. Amazing. They also make me feel as if I should be sleeping, or if I AM sleeping, and all this is a slightly fuzzy dream.
I am wondering if I can get any work done today. Yesterday I had to drive my daughter around, and I was terrified I'd fall asleep at the wheel. I fell asleep at nine last night, and dragged myself out of bed at ten this morning (it's a weekend, I can do this, lol.) But I feel like I'm underwater. My head is both clear and yet fuzzy. The allergy pills are probably too strong and I should get some....*snore* ...............
..........*huh?* Oh, where was I?
Yes, new allergy medicine.
That's how I feel. I can keep an idea in my head for about two minutes. It's very frustrating.
And I keep yawning.
OK - time for some More Coffee (Have you sever seen anyone with coffee tremors who kept falling asleep?)

I also got a request for a full from my query and sent off the wrong manuscript. (not entirely wrong - I sent off an earlier version when I had the corrected and perfect version ready. This will teach me to keep all my versions in the same folder.) I debated about writing back to the agent and explaining, and then thought, what the hell, it's only a slightly less perfect version. And then my mind skipped to other things.
I'm beginning to think that these pills aren't so bad after all. They don't let me worry.
I can't concentrate enough to worry.
Anyhow, if the agent I sent the full to is reading this blog, please be advised that there is a slightly better version available, where for example, I got rid of that silly typo in the second chapter that made my hero's dog glow instead of growl.


Update:
My mother reads my blog. She called me from the US to tell me I've misplaced another modifier.
Hat's off to whoever spots it!
I won't correct it. Yes it makes me look like a ditz - but it's funny.

My garden is stunning

Well, my husband and I have been working in the garden for two days now. My nails are ruined, my hands tingle from nettle rash, I have black spots on my pants from the lawnmower, and grease from cleaning the barbecue (I know, who cleans a barbecue? All I could think of as I scrubbed was, 'Andrea will be so proud of me!' Aren't you Andrea? hee hee!)

I ripped out weeds and transplanted plants, replanted plants, weeded some more, tore up miles of ivy, chopped ivy stems (Die plant, DIE!!) and mowed and weedwhacked and did all that great stuff that exhausts you - especially since you know that in about a week you have to start All Over Again.

Why does grass have to grow? I was thinking seriously about green cement today.

How nice.

On the left is a bare wall. It was like the wall facing it - covered with ivy. We removed it. Now we have to do the other side. Ivy is pretty, but it has a bad habit of not knowing when to stop. If we let it, it will take over the world. There is a rabbit hutch under the ivy just behind my flower bed. It's a little brick hut, and very cute, but you can't see it any more.

And what happens when you finish working on the garden? You go inside, lol. Well, it was getting very hot and buggy and the grass and nettles were in our clothes and itching. So we didn't hang out in the garden going 'ohhhh!'

We do, however. Here are some pictures of my sister, my daughter, and I hanging out in the garden on a summer night.

Oh wait, that's Versailles!

Tag! You're it!

Erin tagged me!
Da Rulez:
1.Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.2. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.3. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.4. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

Eight things about 'Moi'!

1. I'm a Leo - that says it all.

2. I'm also the Chinese sign of the Rat. Talk about a shock to the Leo, lol. The rat part of me keeps my feet on the ground. The Leo part of me snobs the rat. They always bicker.

3. Leo likes loud music and parties, rat hates noise and fuss. Luckily Leo sits on rat when we go out, and we usually have a great time. Rat sulks.

4. The Leo in me insists that the house be clean at all times. The Leo also insists I get a maid. The rat in me just passed out. Thrift is the rat's middle name.

5. I clean my own house. The Leo in me wails 'At least wear gloves so you don't ruin your manicure!' The rat snears.

6. The Leo in me loves jewelry. The rat in me hocks it whenever we need rent money. I bought two pearl neckaces for 15$ each. The Leo in me was horrified. Only 15$? They must be fakes. I hocked them for 60$. The rat in me sang all the way home. Leo sulked.

7. One of my cashmere sweaters got a hole in it. "Throw it out!" cried Leo. "Wear it to gym," said the rat. I wear it to my gym class. Leo is secretly thrilled.

8. Leos and rats both like good food. They seem to agree that chocolate is next to Nirvana. At least they got Something right!

I tag:
Wyn, Doug, Kate R., John Nez, Bernita, December, Lyn Cash, & Seeley!

8th of May

Armistice Day. It's a national holiday here.


This morning it rained, but it's lovely and sunny out now. My daughter is playing with Auguste, who has a favorite toy. (An eviscerated soccer ball) He runs after it, grabs it, then tries to sneak it into the house. He's not very good at sneaking. One method is to run as fast as he can (with his short stumpy legs he doesn't go very fast!) and try to rush into his dog crate. But the door is too small for the soccer ball, and he always gets stuck, which gives us a chance to swoop in and grab it. (And throw it back outside.)


Here is Auguste running into the kitchen. You can see the hallway where my son leaves his running shoes, and where my daughter tossed her rollerblades and backpack. The blue bed is the dog's bed in the kitchen fireplace. Can you spot the picture of my husband and me on our wedding day?



My daughter throws the ball back into the garden - Auguste is ready to go get it!

Here's the photo of Stef and I on our wedding day!

President Sarko!

Well, we have a new president. He's a member of the last president's political group, so I'm surprised at all the articles starting with 'France Swings to the right!' It's true that the UMP is a conservative party inasmuch as it's opposed to the Socialist party, which comprises most of the 'left'. The UMP is a new party, created by Jacques Chirac, so most of his actions will remain in place. I can't see Sarkozy doing much to change things, but I can make a few predictions.
His first move will probably be lowering taxes, starting with those of 'big businesses' and helping the wealthy. This will spark resentment and make any other changes he has in mind more difficult. His next move will be to try and appease the youth of France - (over 75% of the 25 and younger voted for Segolin Royal because of her platform on new jobs.) He will probably make some sort of law about the working contracts, which give experience (but not jobs) to young job seekers. What he will need to do is abolish them completely, but I doubt he will. The universities will be watching him closely, as they have demanded more independence, and he has promised to give it to them.
He will try to break up the strong French unions. In that, he will fail. He will also try to install what he calls a 'minimum service' law, to insure service during strikes (he's already afraid of the strikes to come.) But unless he mobilizes the military, like they do in the US, he won't get far.
He will raise the cost of alcohol and cigarettes to pay for his tax cuts.
He will try to raise the price of diesal, will fail, and will raise the price of gas. He will say it's to help combat global warming, which is one of his rallying cries.
He will scuttle the 35 hour work week, and will probably make a wage freeze. My husband says he will not send troops to Iraq, but I can predict he'll send one of our warships over to the Gulf to 'help out'.
He's a very smart guy, and I can't stand him, but I'm willing to wait and see. France needs a financial makeover in order to open the market so that the young can get jobs. Unfortunately, Sarko will not help there. France's institutions are frozen by cronyism, and the rich help the rich, while the public sector is completely overblown and rusted shut. No one can get in or out.
We have a great educational system and wonderful healthcare, and I doubt that will change. But it might be harder for immigrants to get jobs, the young will get more and more dissatisfied, and there will be a few years of 'thin cow', as the French like to say.
But maybe a thin cow will be more lively and stronger than the fat cow we have right now.
So what are a few strikes?
Good Luck Sarko!

The Glass Box Game!

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x1qbhu_embrevement-n3

Click on the link above. It will take you to a small video showing a big glass box perched on a pillar in Clichy, Paris.
I found this on Verilion's blog. (she lives in Paris! Quite a co-inkydinky, as my friend Patty likes to say!)

Anyhow, here is the game.

What would you do if you came upon the box?

(I would climb in it, and start shouting, "Beam me up, Scotty!!")

What would YOU do?

Branding

I was over at Kate R's blog after reading her comment over here.
She has an interesting interview up with a best selling author.
The best selling author is telling Kate that her success is owed to LUCK and to BRANDING.
All sorts of images came to mind.
- A hefty cowgirl being singled out of the pack, tossed to the ground and branded with a red-hot iron. 'Romance Best Seller!' - Right on her plump rear.
- A woman wrapped in shiny cellophane, with heart-shaped pink labels advertising romance stuck in strategic places, a bright smile firmly pasted on pink lips. (not too much lipstick - we said romance, not erotica.)
- Betty Crocker. (All right, silly, I know, but whenever I think of branding I think of Betty Crocker. This time she's not holding a cookbook, she's holding a romance book, and she's wearing rhinestone festooned glasses.)

After the images came to mind, my mind (in typical Sam fashion) rebelled. I've always been a good girl striving desperately for a 'bad girl' image, lol. What? Branded? And you can't express any opinions? And you must be careful not to project any other image except that of your books??

(Already I'm starting to feel schizophrenic - I write erotica, mainstream, and YA fiction, science fiction, high fantasy, contemporary, urban fantasy, historical and paranormal...what on earth kind of brand would I get? I'm guessing it won't be pink and heart-shaped.)

I have strong opinions about things. I'm also open minded and can be swayed by a good argument. I love a good argument. But that's not the point of this blog. You can't really have a good argument on a blog - you can only post your opinions, get misunderstood, get into hot water, and decide it's better to stick with recipes by Betty Crocker.
But the best selling author did have a point when she insisted on having a good image. I just suppose that the last thing I want (sorry) is to be branded as a romance writer. It's too limited for me. For one thing, I do many things better than writing romance, and other things are more important to me.
I put so many things before my writing that it would really bother me to be branded. Think of me as one of those old steamer suitcases which has traveled all over the world, and has stickers in all sizes, shapes and colors from everywhere, in different languages, all over it. That's more like it.

As for the LUCK part - well, that's out of my hands, isn't it?
;-)

UPDATE:
Kate R. has told me that while I'm mentioning her blog, I better mention her Flipping Contest - so here it is: (click HERE) Now run along and enter her flipping contest!
It sounds pretty easy - just ask her for any of her books (except Taming Him, which I've already read Anyhow) and then post a review of it on your blog. (Good, bad, or whatever.) I like Kate's writing, so this is a contest I will actually Enjoy, lol.

A Proposal

It's a cloudy day - maybe I'll be able to get some writing done.
I have a confession. When it's sunny and the weather is lovely, I have to be outside. Or if not outside, doing something active. It's like I'm solar powered - the sun comes out and I move!
The house is spring-cleaned - all except for the kitchen. I've saved it for last, and will take it apart this weekend (when hubby is not around to see the mess, lol.) The garden is mowed, the flowers blooming, the birds singing...So I suppose I should be sitting down and finishing the two books I have to finish. And today it's cloudy, so I will try and work on them.

I sent another query out. I haven't heard back from anyone on any of my queries. I've sent out partials and fulls - but no news. Yesterday I sent a query directly to an editor who told me to go ahead and query her with a proposal, so I sent off 'In the Cards'. We'll see what happens!

What is a proposal?
It's what it sounds like. It's getting down on your knee, looking imporingly at the one you covet, and saying 'Here I am - do you want me?'
In the book world, it's usually comprised of a synopsis, a chapter by chapter outline, and the first three chapters (more or less) of the book. I sent off a 'blurb' synopsis (with hook) and a detailed synopsis with the beginning, middle, and end plotted out to show what would happen, when, and why. I sent the first five chapters, because they're short, and they end in a logical place.
Hopefully, the editor will like the proposal and tell me to go ahead and finish it. She'll either offer to buy it outright, or wait until it's finished. But at least it will give me the push I need to sit down and finish the story! It's all in my head. Now I have to sit and type!!!!

More on BookMooch

So far I've had a good BookMooch experience. I sent six books and got five. Since I wasn't sure about postage, I refused to send to the US (expensive) but I did accept a book mooch from England, and later regretted it as it cost 6$ to send a book worth 7$. Live and learn! So I changed my profile to say I couldn't send outside France. Hopefully lots of French moochers will find my profile and mooch, so I can get some more books!
I just mooched 4 Terry Pratchett books - (I LOVE his Discworld series). I mooched a Colin Bateman, a Jennie Crusie, a Stephanie Bond, a Janet Evanovitch, (funny!) and a Dick Francis and an Ian Rankin (mystery books).
So Book Mooch has been a great experience so far.
Daisy mae just wrote and said she stumbled on a BookMooch scammer though. A guy listed bunches of books, mooched a bunch of books, then took his listing off and vanished. Bad Moocher, Bad!
I am going to clean up my bookcase in my bedroom, and my kids' bookcases, and will have a lot of new books to list. I'm sorry I don't ship to the US - it's just not worth it - might as well just buy the book from a used books bookstore. :-(
I saw a couple of my books floating around on BookMooch - that was fun. And Clean Reads had the drawing for Horse Passages - I'll have a drawing too when I get to the US this summer - I have a bunch of books to giveaway, so stay tuned for my July Giveaways!
OK - off to the gym!
Have a great day!

May Day!

Happy May 1st!

It's a holiday here, so hubby is working, lol. He got up early to head to the club where he has lessons, a practice game, and a dinner to go to. Last night we were out late - we had dinner in Paris. It was fun. We dropped off our daughter at her grandmother's aparment, along with a bag of take-out Chinese food for their dinner. Then we went to an Italian restaurant called 'Chez Livio', a nice Italian place that serves great food (I had a plate of lemony marinated green beans with mozzarella to start, and a small pizza with smoked ham and fresh rockette. (Pizza con parme y rucola) - and two coffees because I was falling asleep, I'm afraid. It was a business dinner with my husband and his polo team. Guess what they talked about all night long?

But it was nice to get out of the countryside. Paris at night is magical - I'm thinking of writing an urban fantasy with a Parisian setting - sort of like my zombie series. It could be a lot of fun to research too - I'd have to visit the catacombs and such. :-)

It's another gorgeous day. I ran out and picked a bouquet this morning - I grabbed the last Peonie, some iris, and a branch from our white lilac tree. I put it in the kitchen next to Seymou'r fishbowl. (There is Seymour, our Black Moor goldfish.) He's learned to come up to the surface when we show him the fish food box. I'd like to get him a bigger aquarium though. Behind it is one of my acrylic paintings I did at the race track. It's the parade ring, with the horses getting ready to go out on the track. And behind the bouquet, you can see part of my son's Chinese water color of bamboo, and in the front is the little clay horse my daughter made in school!

Today I have two English lessons, and I'm hoping to get some reading done for Calderwood Books. Our slush pile is building up again and we have two full manuscripts to evaluate as well as two full rewrites to look over. Our editor has six books on her plate right now, and we're slowly finding our limits as far as how much we can manage at once! Luckily, we love to read!