Friday Fill-ins: October 16th

And...here we go!

1. So are we going to the Fall Festival in Coconut Creek or the Chinese Buffet tonight?

2. Editing and more editing is what's up ahead. I have two edits to do this weekend. I'm afraid to look at my email to see if there are more edits.

3. I love to spend time with my husband (he's so busy it's not been happening lately) and eat sushi - will do both tonight.

4.  I want to do exercise this weekend (probably walking and swimming) of some sort.

5. I walk a little late, but I used to walk an hour or more a day. I want to start doing that again.

6. Water is the true elixir of life!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to spending time with my hubby tonight, tomorrow my plans include editing while I'm at my daughter's softball practice, then stop at a local crafts fair, go to the gym to swim and walk on the treadmill, then more editing, and Sunday, I want to sleep in late as my daughter's softball tournament games aren't till late in the afternoon. Of course I will also write while I'm watching my daughter's games.

I don't know about you, but I love Fall. Unfortunately, there's not much of it in South Florida. Day times are still sweltering in the 90's. We don't get the lovely change of color cooler climates enjoy. But usually there's still a nip in the air and the spirit of autumn, harvest, and Halloween is in the air.

I miss Cincinnati in October, too, because of Octoberfest. Cincinnati shuts down its downtown to traffic and has the best Octoberfest in the US. If you're new to my blog, I'm from Cincinnati although I've lived in South Florida for twenty years and in Southern Mississippi for almost ten years before that.

Autumn colors are pretty so I like the crafts.  I do a lot of my Christmas shopping at crafts fairs. At least I'd like to. Depending how much time I spend at the craft fair tomorrow will decide if I have time to go to the gym, too. I HAVE TO EDIT!

Recent posts you might like to read:

Author Interview: Claire Ashgrove


Ghost Hunting at a Haunted Hotel

Welcome to the Spookiest Month of the Year (+ don't burn your Ouija Board!)

People Don't Fall Out of Trees - Without Reason 

I'm Part of a Tribe 

Big Brother Is Watching You - This Means You BLOGGERS!

Are You Writing Me Into Your Book?

Dont Give Up Too Early

Must Write Must Write Must Write!!!

You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook,
Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch,
Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape
are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

Friday Fill-ins Edition 143

1. One week ago I was upset with a friend but now everything's okay with us and so I feel much better. 2. I rode horses, water-skiied, danced at the Disco all the time, and read Harlequin romances all the time when I was young. 3. Mama told me High-School would be my best years and that boyfriends took priority over girlfriends. I love my mom but I don't think that was the right advice, especially not the second part. 4. Forever you and me. 5. Take your time. It takes longer to do something over than to do it right the first time. 6. Today's troubles will pass! When God closes a door he opens a window. 7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to watching the season premiers of Smallville and Ghost Hunter then working on my edit, tomorrow my plans include finishing my pre-edit and hopefully also my latest short story, and Sunday, I want to add a lot more words and possibly finish the first draft of my novel in progress - while at my daughter's softball tournament all day! Yipee! It's Rising Starz again. (No, I'm really not being sarcastic - I like it, I love watching the girls, I hope my daughter gets a scholarship to play ball out of his, but sitting outside in the sweltering Florida heat ALL DAY on a Sunday is draining - just the idea is already draining me.) Have a great weekend. I'll prepost here for the weekend - Snippet Saturday tomorrow and a scintillating post for Sunday about the writing life. Also, if you didn't catch my short story "A Hard Time" at the Long and Short Reviews, it's still up. So please hop over to the L&S Reviews for my free short story for you. Other writing, reading, and promo related posts by Ashley you may enjoy: Snippet Saturday: Kick Ass Heroes and Heroines Nudists on Strike Kudos to Harlequin Kenzie Michaels Guest Interview Twitter Works Do You Really Want To Post That?

You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook,
Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch,
Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape
are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

Aren't birthdays supposed to be perfect?

Aren't birthdays supposed to be perfect? Isn't that an unwritten law or something? Nineteen years ago today, I gave birth to my fourth child, second daughter. I can't believe my baby girl's 19 already. The years have sped by. So far today, her knee got cut by glass, she spilled her drink (almost on electrical wires), she tripped down the stairs, and now she feels as if something's biting her leg (I can't see anything). Despite that, she's had a pretty good day. She played in a scrimmage softball game this morning which she enjoyed despite perspiring profusely under a raging Florida sun. She also liked the cupcakes we took for her and her team to celebrate. And she liked stopping at Skyline Chili for lunch after the game. We had a joint birthday party for her and her sister last weekend. I think she'd like to see Transformers 2 at the 99 cent theater, too. But we may do that this weekend as Mom's tired. But it's not that late yet, so we'll see. Or Star Trek - it's still there. (Maybe we'll see both this weekend.) If I had the $ I'd take her anywhere in the world she wanted today. I'd buy her anything she wanted (well, within reason). I am spending the entire day with her. She's camped out beside me on her computer as I'm on mine. You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

Overwhelmed - again!

It would be nice if I actually wrote an article before I posted the blog. If you checked this out early you'll know what I mean. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I posted the final paragraph about "You'll also want to see what other authors are doing" and nothing else. I've been feeling overwhelmed again. I'm sure there are a lot of factors. I hadn't had my Lexapro in 2 or 3 weeks. I'm under the gun of 2 big edts and having another whole story to write due. I've been down with asthma and bronchitis. The kids, in particular DD2, want me to run them places right and left. The Softball Team's Booster Club is on our back about helping out more and most of it's during my work hours when I can't take off from the day job. I feel bad for not volunteering more with the softball team but I'm way behind in my writing job as it is. I finally finished one big edit yesterday (first round anyway) which is a relief. However, that still leaves another big edit and a story to finish writing. And have I exercised? Even once this week? Even once in the past month? Have I even used the bathing suit I bought two or three months ago? All big NOs. I want to but then I feel guilty that I'm ignoring the writing. Yeah, I have a problem about feeling guilty too much. A few years back I decided to get healthy and I exercised and dieted all the time and ignored the writing/promoting. Then I hardly put out any books. My career took a nosedive. But I got thin and my cholesterol came down. But I can't seem to manage to hold the day job and do enough exercise and writing all at the same time. Not with kids still at home anyway. Not when half my time off the day job is at softball games or taxiing kids to their activities. Yikes! I don't mean to whine. I'm just annoyed with myself for not working this out better. For perhaps taking breaks to watch American Idol instead of breaks to walk. AI is pretty much my one guilty pleasure. That and too much KFC. Hubby just pointed out it's time to pick up the daughter from her friend's house where she stayed overnight so we can take her to guess where -- yep, softball practice again. Today it's batting practice. Tomorrow night is a game. I'm going to be good and WALK during her practice. And afterwards I'm going to camp out at Borders again to write. I wish the library was open late because I'd go there instead. The library has privacy cubicles with power hookups in every one and there's no tempting food to make me spend money and calories. You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

War!

Why do people have to call during American Idol? I mean, I want complete silence, complete concentration. It's my thing and I just want to be left alone to watch it and hear every word. It was going good until hubby came home from his second job at the very end and his phone started ringing. Since Monday, he and his umpiring buddies have been brooding over an illegal player who happened to be a great pitcher. And the team she was on won the game over our team. To hear hubby tell it, he's concerned what would have happened the league if the girl would've hit someone without signed papers. I'm sure that's part of it, but I imagine that's not all. Hubby takes his softball VERY SERIOUSLY. He's also having a war with the high school coaches of my daughter's team. I'm ready to take him and the coaches over my knee and paddle all three. Seriously, they're all three acting like 3-year olds - except that my 2 1/2 year old granddaughter is a whole lot cuter and more endearing than these three. It's bad enough they have to act so badly, but I don't appreciate me or the daughter being caught in the middle. Nor do I appreciate having my American Idol interrupted. Oh well... I'll get over it. I don't know if the hubby will, at least not before hurting himself or the coaches. Okay, it's time for me to escape into the latest book I'm writing, the one I just said I can finish in 2-3 weeks tops. If it wasn't so late at night, I'd escape to Borders or the park. Or maybe I should just go to bed, put on my sleep mask and ear plugs (yes, I wear them nightly because hubby keeps the TV on late and would keep me up late otherwise). You'll also want to see what Amarinda Jones, Anika Hamilton, Anny Cook, Barbara Huffert, Brynn Paulin, Bronwyn Green, Dakota Rebel, Kelly Kirch, Molly Daniels, Sandra Cox, Regina Carlysle, and Cindy Spencer Pape are up to, so make sure to visit them also. :)

A sticky love affair

I'm in love. Hopelessly, helplessly, head over heels. I'm addicted. I can't help myself. I'm obsessed. I can't stay away from the object of my obsession. We go everywhere together. We're never separated. If my husband knew about my affair, I'd be in big trouble. He'd kill me. So I'm a goner. I'm in love with my new Alpha Smart. It's soooo great, well, most of the time. I did lose a file yesterday. I must've hit the on and send button when I was carrying it. That's a few hours work lost. Oy! But that was my fault. I can't blame the Alpha Smart. I'll have to get a carry case. I took it to my daughter's softball tournament yesterday, knowing we'd be there several hours, knowing my laptop doesn't hold a charge for but a couple minutes (so I couldn't work on my edit anyway sans a real computer), hating to waste so much time. I was carrying several things and had my hands full and it never occurred to me that I'd accidentally turn it on AND delete a file. At least I'd uploaded all but one file to my computer or I'd be in a bigger bind. But I recovered. I was able to write a few thousand words. Everybody, the girls and the parents, were fascinated by my toy. If I had a distributorship, I'd be rich. I could sell so many. Everybody loved it and wants one. It's also light and didn't kill my shoulder like my lap top. By the way, my daughter's team won second place in the tournament. I don't really consider they lost the last game. Get this. In the championship game, they had only played 2 innings, had 28+ minutes left on the clock, and it was starting to get dark but not all the way dark yet, and the umpire called the game and awarded it to the other team. I couldn't believe it. From before the game started, the umpire kept walking over to the guy sitting next to us who he called his cousin, and couldn't stop talking about how hungry he was and how anxious he was to get out of there to eat pizza. I thought he was joking at first about wanting to get out of there fast. He obviously wasn't joking. I was so mad. I've never wanted to kill an ump before - well, my hubby who's an ump, but not in conjunction with his umpiring duties...

Coming Out Of The Closet

I just finished my monthly blog over at Total-e-Bound, my newest publisher. Please hop on over and read it at:


http://www.totalebound.blogspot.com




The title of the article is: "Coming Out Of The Closet". You'll have to pop over there to see why.


As I was watching the USA Olympic softball team play FIU's team after work tonight, and then writing this other article, this won't be a long blog tonight. By the way, the olympic team won
14-0, but both teams were awesome. My younger daughter is a die-hard softball player.


And for those of you who haven't seen a firely but seemed fascinated by them in the other day's post, here are a couple pics. I tried to find a pic of them lighting up the dusk, but no luck. If I find one later, I'll post it. Or if anyone has one, please email it to me if you want me to post it.

Never give up

As some of you know, I was at my daughter's softball game earlier tonight. I was also online at the Joyfully Reviewed chat with the TEB authors (www.total-e-bound.com) courtesy of hubby's wireless Internet connection card and my trusty lap top. My daughter's team, the Red Sox, were losing 13 - 4 in the second to last inning. So it wasn't hard to do my thing on the Internet during this. All of a sudden, however, the Red Sox began to kick ass. They turned it totally around. They were getting the other team out, 1-2-3. Then they were belting the hell out of the ball and running laps around the field. In the second to last inning, they came up so that it was 13-12. I thought that was the last inning and we'd lost. I almost had a heart attack this game was so intense. But then there was another inning. And we got two outs. And then the bases were loaded. And then a strong batter kept fouling and got 2 strikes. I mean, we were so close to winning and losing. Then the catcher fumbled the ball and and all 3 runners on base came home. Woohoo! Those girls didn't give up. They kept playing and they emerged victorious. I think there's a lesson in this.