Happy Mom’s Day!

It’s not easy to write with kids around — and that includes dogs and cats. When I started writing, I used to write on the kitchen table, which in my house is the hub. I could go out of my book for those few minutes while my son and husband stampeded into the kitchen during a commercial — and by the time they returned to the family room I’d be typing away again. My son was a teenager, so I didn’t have the problems Erica Orloff does with Demon Baby. You can read about the joys of writing with a Demon Baby on this blog post. Or if you have a toddler in your book who uses his genius mind in unusual ways, all your research is at Erica’s Demon Baby and me blog.

My son doesn’t live at home anymore, but my dog and cat do. They interrupt me more than he ever did. I can’t tell you how many times I run up and down the steps during the day to take the dog in and out. When she wants to go out, she wants to go out now. When she wants to come in, she wants to come in now. Two minutes later she’ll see something out the front window and start barking with a high-pitched, ear-hurting end to each bark that no one with hearing could type through. So I run downstairs and put her out again.

Yet she’s a pussycat compared to Belle, my cat. When Belle’s not sleeping, she’s on my lap or in front of the screen, rubbing against it, getting her hair all over it. She’s such a sweetie, purring the whole time, and I can’t resist her cute little face. All she wants is a little lovin’. Isn’t that what our characters want? Isn’t that what we want?

The times I’m in the throes of writing, or I want to finish something before petting her, she stretches her head foreward and rubs her mouth against my typing fingers, putting her scent on me. Last night, after I’d petted her enough to settle her down, she sat on the edge of my desk and swished her tail back and forth, sweeping off all my notes. On purpose. She knew what she was doing.

Karin Tabke told me she can’t resist her cat either, who will curl on her lap while she’s typing. How about you? What interrupts you while you’re writing?

This is a fun one. Cynthia Eden tagged me with “The page 123 meme.” The rules?

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people and post a comment to the person who tagged you once you’ve posted your three sentences.

My closest book is nonfiction and the sentences wouldn’t make sense to anyone not reading it, so my second closest is Liz Kreger’s Forget About Tomorrow.

Page 123, line 5, 6, and 7:

The head wrap concealed his hair and left only a small portion of his face visible. Lacey remained in her tan flight suit although she donned a similar headdress. The material provided a suitable disguise.

Now for my tag targets.

1. Liz Kreger (because I quoted from her book)
2. Marcia Colette
3. Natasha Fondren (aka Spyscribbler)
4. Jody Wallace
5. Elisabeth Naughton (because she tagged me last time, and it’s payback )

Anyone else feel like adding lines below, I’d love to see what you’re reading.

I’ve been tagged by Elisabeth Naughton to tell six random things about myself. I’ve done this several times, and last time I think I said I wouldn’t do it again. But here’s my first random thing:

1. Saying NO is hard!

See how I snuck one random thing in? Also, this saves me from having to think of a blog topic.

2. With advice from Marcia Colette, I put up two Wikipedia pages this week. One for Karin Tabke, and one for Trish MacGregor (aka T.J. MacGregor). Within the next day or two, I’ll put one up for Tawny Weber. (The links for Karin and Trish will take you to their Wikipedia pages.)

3. I’m writing this on Saturday because on Sunday Liz Kreger and I are driving over to Illinois to meet Amy Knupp and Jan Kenny for an early lunch. Pizza, because Liz has a yen for Chicago pizza, and that’s fine with the rest of us. Amy and Jan are at the Spring Fling conference, so they’ll have lots to tell us.

4. Liz is driving, and I’m bringing along my pitches for three books to practice on her during the hour and a half drive to Illinois, and the hour and a half back. Anyone think she’ll be sorry? She’ll be trapped with me, and the only way for her to get out of it is to spill all the gossip from the RT conference.

5. I’m not sure if I told this before, but we were expecting company one day and I was going to vacuum. But my husband told me our visitors cancelled. So instead of vacuuming I picked up a couple dustballs. I didn’t think anything of it until I told LaDonna, and she thought it was hilarious. To me, it’s just another day in the life …

6. I put things down and hope I find them later. You can guess how well that works. The other week someone emailed me something. I know I saved it, but I can’t find it anywhere. Even if I inadvertently deleted it, it should be in my Trash, but it wasn’t there. So now I don’t just lose things in the real world, I also lose them in the cyber world. If there’s a parallel world, I know I’m losing things there too.

I’m not tagging anyone, but if you have a random thing to share, please do. We all want to know.

For years I’ve been interested in life after life. The subject caught my attention when I first heard about the tunnel and the white light, and never let go. Not that it’s an obsession, just an interest. I even forget about it for long stretches of time, but I always come back to explore it again.

One of the books I’ve read recently is Journey of Souls by Dr. Michael Newton. He’s a hypnotherapist who regressed patients to the life between lives stage. I read it for my own interest, but now I have an idea where I’ll be able to use some of this in a book, and I’m excited. It’s a surface level subplot, but even surface level will be fun. And once I start writing, deeper aspects might creep into the pages.

I’ve used other interests in books. In CATTITUDE, my main character is a cat who becomes a woman. I had a lot of fun giving the character my cat’s “humans are here to serve me” personality. Another book, BOOBS, is about three women who don’t let breast cancer stop them from living their lives to the fullest. Breast cancer isn’t an interest, but I’ve had breast cancer, and going through it changes you. I wanted to write about women experiencing this change.

I’ve given characters careers in areas that I have some talent for, but not the drive. Stand-up comedy, artists, songwriters. I’ve sold greeting card verses and one character has her own greeting card company. It was fun making up comedy routines, songs, and greeting card verses for the books.

I’ve also written about characters with careers I know nothing about and that don’t interest me. In the book with the life-between-lives subplot, the protagonist will be a gardener. About all I know about gardens is to pick tomatoes when they’re red. I’m lucky my CP, Liz Kreger, loves gardening and will be able to advise me (I hope).

Do you explore your interests and passions in your books? Any examples?

I’m reading Happy for No Reason by Marci Shimoff. The subtitle is: 7 Steps to Being Happy from the Inside Out. In it, Shirmoff says some people have happy genes, and other people make a choice to be happy.

I made that choice years ago. I figured I could go through life grumpy and angry, or I could do it feeling joy and wonder. After I made this decision, I read books on being happy. I collected “happy” quotes. I hung out with positive people. In my living room I have two wooden valances painted white. On the smaller one, my son painted JOY in big blue letters. On the longer one, he painted ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE.

Shimoff has a Happy For No Reason Questionaire, which I took. Out of 100 points I got 84, which puts me in the “Happy For No Reason” group. And this was being brutally honest. On the day I took the test, I was feeling happy from the inside out, actually skipping into rooms. A real “happy for no reason” day. So if there was a doubt whether my score on a question would be higher or lower, I took the lower mark.

As writers we need to feel the whole spectrum of emotions in order to write about them, and I do. Boy, do I. I’ve had lousy things happen, things that make me feel depressed and angry. But I don’t want to feel depressed and angry forever. That’s just boring. And it’s an energy drainer. If I’m pissed off or depressed, am I going to feel like writing? Or am I going to feel like eating chocolate and complaining?

If you’re happy, you’re optimistic. You think good things will happen, and you’ll act like they will. You’ll take chances. You’re proactive. If one thing doesn’t work, you’re less likely to give up. You’ll look for another way to work it. Or you’ll look for another path to your goal. Maybe you talked to the wrong person, and there’s someone who is the right one. You believe in yourself. You know you’ll find a way, that the universe supports you. You attract what you believe will happen.

So what do you think about all this? And if you take the test and want to share your score, I’d love to hear it.