I wrote eight new pages today.  That's the best I've done in weeks,  maybe months.  It's also the most fun I've had writing in quite some time.  All of those revisions I did really bogged me down.  I've never gone that long without moving forward, writing fresh stuff, and it was almost like I forgot how.

But I'm feeling much better about writing the last couple of weeks, and I think I won't have to go get a job at Wal-Mart after all.

I've revised my opinion somewhat about beach volleyball.  It is considerably different than court volleyball.  But I still say they wouldn't show so much of it if it didn't involve girls in skimpy bkinis.

Since Rob's fencing class has been suspended for a while, we did date night tonight, and we FINlALLY got to try Spiral Diner, the new vegan restaurant everyone's been talking about.  It didn't disappoint.  I had the most awesome wrap that had a lot of improbable ingredients mixed together.  Rob had a nut burger and it was good, too.

Thanks for reading,

Kara

My friend Victoria Chancellor threw this wonderful theme party.  Everyone brought a cheap, screwtop wine (something you might have enjoyed in high school) and some even wore costumes (like a mullet wig) and brought snacks.  I brought Yago Sangria and pork rinds.  Vicki herself provided a table full of the most wonderful trashy food--deviled eggs, cocktail weenies in barbecue sauce, Rotel dip and chips, celery stuffed with pimiento cheese, Ruffles and French onion dip, Spam with Chicken in a Biscuit crackers--it just went on and on.  Of course, I ate it all.  (It was all full of salt so I, the one who is supposed to be on a low-salt diet, loved it all.

The one exception was the "Cracklins," which I thought would be like regular pork rinds, but which are much, much grosser.

Here is my expert opinion on the wine:

Thunderbird: undrinkable, tastes like cough medicine

MD 20/20--tastes like fruity pancake syrup mixed with grain alcohol.  Horrible.

Manieschewitz (sp?): almost as bad as Mad Dog

Andre Cold Duck: drinkable but sweet; I can see why we downed a lot of it in high school

Boones Farm Strawberry Hill:  actually not that bad.  Sweet.

Yago Sangria: best of the bunch.  And at $5 a bottle, it should be.

These are just the ones I remember.  There were others.  We also had Trailer Trash beverages such as Milwaukee's Best Beer, Mountain Dew, Big Red, RC Cola, Diet Right, etc. etc.

I never laughed so hard in my life.  What a fun party!

Tomorrow I have my big craft show, the Show Pony Show in Deep Ellum.  It's at 3311 Elm St., the Continental Lofts, INSIDE a climate-controlled place.  It's 11-7--come on by for some very cool handmade items, dance lessons, and a pony.  Really.

Thanks for stopping by,

Kara

I have no idea where I picked this stuff up, but my computer was infiltrated with spyware and adware, Trojan horses and other malicious stuff.  I noticed it had been running really slow lately, but starting yesterday it wouldn't update Windows, or let me run a virus scan, and when it wouldn't let me get my e-mail I had to do something.  I spent today visiting various websites (mostly on my laptop, since the viruses wouldn't let me go anywhere that could help me).

Finally I visited Microsoft, and they had scanning software that I was able to run.  So far, so good; I haven't seen an x-rated pop-up and IE hasn't frozen up in, oh, an hour or so.  That's a big record.

We'll have to see if it's really cured or not.

Naturally, I got very little writing done, though some.  Still working out the plot of my new book, using Blake Snyder's "Save the Cat" method.  Time will tell with this matter, too.

Thanks for visiting,

Kara

I've been watching the Olympics today (my honey Fabian Cancellera took the bronze in the road race, and it's not even his strong event!).  And I was just amazed by beach volleyball.  I don't really understand why they made it a whole separate sport from indoor volleyball.  The obvious answer is so we have an excuse to watch girls in bikinis cavort, but perhaps there's something I don't understand. 

Not to take away from the incredible strength and skill it takes to do well in either form of volleyball.  But it still seems funny to me.  I'm still reeling over the fact that our esteemed president was cavorting with the girls.  This is the third time he's gotten together with them.  He seems to REALLY like them.  I was also shocked to see Henry Kissinger there watching the Olympics.  He's been out of the public eye for so long, I assumed he was dead.  (I know, that's rude, especially given that Henry and I share a birthday.  Not the year, though.)

See you soon,

Kara

I am more or less recovered from my trip to California and trying to get back into the swing of things.  Actually got back into writing (or at least plotting) today.

But I wanted to relate a funny thing that happened while I was in California. 

Rob's mother lives in a shi-shi retirement community by the beach.  All of her loved ones know to take their shoes off before entering her apartment, to avoid getting sand on everything.  We all leave our shoes lined up outside the door, which opens out into an interior hallway in a secure building.

So one afternoon we are preparing to go out to dinner, and I walk out to get my shoes, and one of them is missing.  Just one.  Everyone else's shoes are present and accounted for.  We launched a search; we went up and down the hallways, checked the trash room and out by the pool and anywhere I'd been (lest I'd become distracted removing my shoes and left one someplace, which isn't out of the realm of possibility).

No shoe.

We contacted the front desk and checked the lost and found.  We talked to housekeeping and maintenance people.  No one had come across a lone athletic shoe.

The shoes were a bit worn, and it wouldn't have been such a tragedy but for one thing: my custom orthotic was in that shoe.  These suckers cost hundreds of dollars to replace.  Worse, if I had to truck through airports and parking lots in bad shoes with no arch supports, I would be in a world of pain.

When the shoe failed to turn up, Rob and I borrowed my m-i-l's car and drove to the local mall to try and find replacement athletic shoes.  But no one carried the brand I prefer, and I didn't want to spend a lot of money on shoes I might not like.  So we stopped at a drug store, bought some Dr. Scholl generic orthotics, and went home.

I put the lone remaining shoe outside the door, thinking perhaps it might replicate itself, or call to its mate.  And that is exactly what happened.  The next day the shoe reappeared, complete with orthotic (though missing a sock).

We still aren't sure what happened, but here's the theory:  An elderly person walking a big dog failed to notice when said pooch picked up my shoe.  Some distance away, the dog owner discovered his or her dog had a new playtoy but had no idea where it came from.  Then, on another walk down the hall, the owner spotted the shoe I'd put out as bait, put two and two together, and covertly returned the purloined footwear.  (Perhaps Fido ate my sock.)

And that is the tale of the missing shoe.

Thanks for visiting,

Kara

Just a quick note to say that I am still in California.  I survived the RWA conference in San Francisco, then flew down to So. Ca. to visit family.  It's beautiful here!  Love the beach.  Not getting much writing done but I am reading "Save the Cat!" by one of the speakers from our conference who impressed me.  He's all about structure learned from the movies (same subject as my workshop, but frankly he did it better).

I hope to return to regular blogging when I get home.

Best,

Kara

I've been MIA on my blog lately.  Blame it on summer doldrums, the upcoming RWA conference and the Tour de France.  The latter two have consumed me--trying to get everything done, bought, packed, printed etc. In addition to the usual wardrobe concerns, I'm doing the Moonlight Madness Bazaar, so I have to bring all my Memo-Pause stuff (displays, packaging etc.).  And I'm doing a workshop, so I have to get ready for that.

I'm not ready and I imagine I won't be ready.  It's going to be a mess.  I'll arrive in San Francisco exhausted, sleep-deprived and missing stuff.

Oh, well, that's typical for me.  I never leave enough time!

Today I went to a photo party (or "photarty") where my fellow Etsy Dallasites and I borrowed each other's equipment, used each other as models, and played with our hostess's button maker.  We also ate, of course, and drank espresso.

Now I'm watching the Tour final stage.  It was ridden this morning, but I decided to wait until tonight to watch the replay.  I don't know yet how it all comes out.

I leave Tuesday for San Francisco, but I'll try to check in while I'm there.

Thanks for reading,
Kara

Well, no, it's not really.  But at least it's not in my office anymore.  Last night it was about 95 degrees upstairs.  Today we got a new A/C and it's a comfy 78.  Now that we've lived in this house for ten years, we've replaced both furnaces and both A/C units.  (They were ancient when we moved in.)  The A/C repair people know me really well.  I'm hoping I won't see so much of them in the future.

So much for my plans for my stimulus check.  It's gone, and a lot more with it.  Oh, well.  I knew it would happen someday.

I didn't get any work done today except some critiquing, laundry, Memo-Pause and some work on a cover for one of Rob's books.  No writing.  I'm finding it incredibly difficult to write lately.  Between the Tour and all the other distractions, it's just not getting done.  Big sigh.  I used to look down my nose at people who couldn't seem to find the time to write.  I've never had this happen before.  I hope I snap out of it.

The Tour has taken a few interesting turns this year.  Still no clear front-runner.  I've never seen so many good writers with such small time gaps between them at this late stage in the race.

Thanks for stopping by,

Kara

Upstairs it doesn't seem to be cooling.  Thank God we have a zoned system and it's cool downstairs, or I would have to check into a hotel.  It is so hot and muggy here.

I got back into writing my sniper book today.  I've finally come to grips with the fact that i'll never be able to recreate all the brainstorming I did in Port Aransas, and this book refuses to let itself be plotted.  I'm going to have to write it as a pantser.  Just writing along today I was coming up with better ideas already, so I guess I'll see where it takes me.

Since it's Date Night, we tried a new place that just opened called Bolsa.  It's an organic market, restaurant and wine bar.  It's really tiny, and the menu is extremely limited, but what we ordered was pretty darn good.  And I got a peach grapefruit sangria, which was refreshing and gave me a buzz.

I guess I'll go brave the oven upstairs and get ready for bed!

Thanks for visiting,
Kara

I just cannot come up with a decent title for tihs book despite HOURS spent brainstorming.  It's driving me crazy.  I have 'til Monday to come up with a list to give my agent.  (Last time I did this she didn't like anything I came up with.  I guess maybe she and I aren't on the same page when it comes to titles).

Since we're out of food, we went to Norma's for dinner.  They now offer a turkey burger, and I have to say it's pretty darn good.  Norma's is not big on healthy food.  Even their veggies are swimming in butter or batter-fried.  So this is a step in the right direction.  (Of course, I ate mine with a side of homemade potato chips!)

Not much else to report.  Have a wonderful weekend!

Kara