Naming Characters

I was sitting here trying to come up with names when one came to my attention. The alliteration with the heroine's name was great and I was on the verge of typing it on my special "NANO" page when I thought of someone I knew by that name. He isn't the only one I know with that name, but he is the first one my mind flashed. Please believe me when I say he is not soulmate material for a demon paranormal series. *sigh. I don't know what to do. I wrote a trial scene of this book and YIKES! It's going to be tricky. *insert a visual of me sitting here biting my cuticles as I contemplate What the Hell to name my character.

See, as I think I've mentioned, I'm a pantster. A dyed in the wool pantster. However, it dawned on me that I might want a few visuals to aid me if I get writers block so I thought I'd pin down some of the ideas that have been floating in my head FOREVER. Okay, not forever, just for a year and a half, but it FEELS like forever. The main character (no not the actual hero, more the anti-antigonist) has been eating away at my conciousness wanting to know when it was his turn again. So, NaNo is providing the impetuous to tell his story and that of those he helps.

Have you ever thought of a perfectly good name for a character and then had it ruined because of someone you know? *sigh* back to the outline.

PS all those chores I talked about earlier. Um. Yeah. I went to sleep. Although, I do have a good idea for tone and a few guidelines for the short book type thing I'm involved in. So, off I go. Back to work on my writing. *whistles* TTFN

OOOHHH

Halloween, NaNoWriMo, Younget's 2nd birthday, trick-or-treating all in the next two days? LIfe is revving up for me. I still have some planning for meal times to do, laundry to catch up on, kids to duct tape, er I mean prepare, and presents to wrap. Not to mention a fun "chapter" to write for part of what looks to be a fun book of awesomeness. I am proud to be included :)

So, with all that to do, I leave you with this short blog to say, Happy Halloween!

Also, good luck to my fellow NaNoWriMo peeps. :D

my brother, my writing

My brother died over a year ago, yet, I still feel as if he should be here. Like somehow, the cosmos made a huge mistake in taking that loving, lively, laughing brother of mine away from this world. "The world is a better place with you in it." I swear that the quote was made for my brother and others like him. Sometimes, I feel like yelling at God, "don't you have enough angels up there? Couldn't you leave him heere with us?" I've been better on a daily basis lately. However, better is relative word like no other. You can be better and still be bad.

What I've found is his death, and all it meant to me, rears its ugly head when I'm getting down about other things as I was Monday night. I'm starting to pull myself up by the bootstraps. As a person who ALWAYS gets postpartem depression, I have absolutely no wish to be stuck in that state of mind.

It's been hard. I look twice my age now, which will hopefully change back as I keep climbing out of this pit of despair. (Yes, I love the Princess Bride:) It's amazing how a few days can change things. I started to apply this thinking and idea to my writing.

Sometime, I despair that I will never write enough or good enough. However, I've learned that I'm too much a perfectionist. I know, you can't tell by my blogs as I let them slide with errors--but not always. However, for me, the blog is a way to keep up. If I allow myself to overstress it, then I don't do it. See the months with few posts? Sometimes, that's a simple internet problem. But mostly, it's because I'm afraid that no one will like what I write or that there will be to many errors in it. Well, I've decided to buck up and take it like a man. (Can't you hear the deep bass voice there LOL) So, here's me blogging more. Here's me doing NaNoWriMo with my internal editor TURNED OFF. No really. It may throw itself on occasssionally, but it is going bye bye for a month.

What happens? In a few days, I have a ton of words on paper, sometimes as much as 20k in 3-4 days. Now that is a big difference. Three days, people. Three days. What can change in your life in three days? Think about it. Make a goal for every three days. It will be easier than hitting a larger goal a month out and the progress you see will give you a huge boost of confidence to sweeten the success.

I love my brother. I still talk to him sometimes. I still miss him. I cry. One day, I'll tell you about my story at the fair that happened where I swear I saw him. (no, it wasn't him, but...) In the meantime, when you're feeling down, give yourself small, attainable goals and reach for the stars! A misnomer? No. Reach for the stars one light year at a time.

Tell me here, what are some of your goals? What are you doing to pull yourself up by the bootstraps when you need to? Do you write or paint like I do? Do you cook? (btw I love to eat ;;) Do you sew? What do you do the most? Or do you switch it up?

Share your thoughts here in the comments section, if you want. But if not, at least tell yourself you are worthy of these breaks and of success and GO FOR IT!

It's almost here

I'm excited for NaNoWriMo. I'm also excited because some artwork/writing was accepted into an ezine http://forevernocturne.wordpress.com for the October issue slated to releases any day now :) Now, if I can only get my goodies made for next month, I'd be all set.

How about you? Anyone doing NaNo? Who's ready? (Except the writing part. I keep changing my mind about what I'm going to write. I've gone back to the paranormal again, but we shall see.)

Freezer update, networking

This is going to be a long way around something, but things have been too disturbing in my neighborhood lately.

If you haven't read my rant about losing my freezer, go back a few blogs and do so. There. Now you see my state of mind?

Okay, a related update to forthcoming story? The Thursday before my freezer went missing, I came home to the neighbor's dog having come to our place to die from a bullet wound. Not pretty, but as a former EMT I could tell them the dog was seriously injured internally. From the outside it looked like a through-and-through his ear. It wasn't.

He was doing the harsh last breath. I told the neighbors I had done my normal, "Smoky, go home!" at him. He is a pit bull (lower teeth removed) mix and a nuisance. On a regular day/night he gets up trots to his side of the fence and commences barking.

This day, he looked at me forlorn and I gasped. Flies covered his head and he made no move to get them off. Blood poured off him. I quickly yelled for the neighbors to come over. When I told them he wasn't moving like normal and I though he was hurt, they thought I was complaining.

"Oh, we'll get the hose. It makes him move."

"No. He's in shock, at the very least. Don't soak him with the hose." They looked at me funny. I'm not Smoky's biggest fan. He's annoying and tears up my yard and my things. Yep, fence coming in with next tax return.

Yet, here I was telling them how to best not hurt him. What's the world come to when people have to be surprised that you can get over your personal dislike to help an injured animal? They knew I cared about animals as I'd helped with other animals.

Anyway, we got warm water to rinse off some of the blood and try to find the injury under the flies. It was a bullet hole in his ear. He was too far gone and had to be put down. It was a very sad thing. Worst for the mother, I believe. They'd had that dog for over 10 years. I felt bad for her. So then my freezer went missing that weekend.

I had a more than passing thought that the two incidents might be related. I spread the word that I would be offering a reward for the return of my freezer but that it would be accompanied by a police report. I let the week go by to see if I had any takers.

No bites. I was getting ready to follow through on things when something happened. The neighbor lady came over. She doesn't speak English so she had to bring her younger kids over to translate. Guess what they had to translate? Worse, they knew and had seen part of this incident.

They had a female dog (part poodle) that they used to sell her pups with. She had the cutes puppies and people were willing to pay 100 for them even though they were essentially mutts. That is how cute they were.

The first question was "Did you see who shot our white dog?" They said her name, but I don't remember it.

"What?" I was incredulous. "The little white one?"

Dogs roam this area cuz it's on the reservation and despite sheriff intervention, few are restrained. It's also not a big traffic area. But that dog wasn't bad and mostly stayed home. Once in a while she'd travel out with a few others, but almost never. She hardly barked, was sweet, didn't dig up my garden, chase my car, or the other things that put us all in relative danger. She was easy to manipulate and never even growled at anyone.

Even when I was trying to chase her out of my yard, I couldn't put any real heat into it. In fact, there was so little heat, the pups came up on the porch to play with me. That's how gentle she was. I'm seriously annoyed at the dogs for getting into my stuff and I still couldn't really chase her off.

So, to say the least, I feel bad. The kids went nuts when they knew I hadn't shot their dog. (Did I tell you how annoyed I was at the dogs? They all knew that I was beyond furious. I lost a whole years garden because of the neighbors dogs and they know I'm so not happy. Plus, they bark at 120ish every morning--give or take half hour for lateness of the train--sometimes that is when I've gotten baby down and almost asleep. He hears the pups and wants to play. See? Annoyed.) They talked over themselves and the mom was speaking in Spanish. I understand just enough Spanish to make the whole thing confusing.

Finally, the older daughter comes over and basically, this is what happened. Someone shot the dog. Let it get ran over, and then, put it in a trash bag, AND LEFT IT ON THEIR FRONT PORCH FOR THE KIDS TO FIND. I am livid. That is a truly shitty thing to do.

Your sick of dogs in your yard? Fine. chase them off. If they threaten you or your kids, fine shoot them. (I don't like this, but I've seen some of the dogs around here. Pack mentality and some of these dogs have been bred for dog fights. We've been in more trouble because we keep taming the pups we see around. They become too playful for dog fights. Oohh don't I feel bad? Ruining all that time and energy of breeding dogs for fights? NOPE NOT AT ALL. I'm kinda aggressive that way. I have no proof to take to the cops or I would. So I do what I can to stop it with little things like loving the animals since they're being so obliging and letting them run around my yard:P)

ANYWAYS. I am totally and thoroughly pissed. See, a week earlier someone had told my son that if he didn't keep the dog (the one that's not our dog but that follows him around and protects him whenever he's not at his "other" home?) away from their yard, they'd shoot it. This dog is so friendly that he sits and shakes when he sees you.

What the fucking hell you doing threatening a 9 & 6 YO with shooting the dog you think is theirs? REALLY? When I get proof of who it was, this momma gonna go postal on their a--, uh, there's going to be trouble. Sorry rabbit trail.

If that's not bad enough you're going to shoot a dog, run her over, throw her in a trash bag and leave it on the porch for the kids to find? I'm so upset. I told the neighbors I was sick of it.

The father of one of the children showed up to see why we were all congregating at my front door. I know he understands English as well. He told me of a former friend of theirs that had been standing on my car but Smoky chased off. That did it. Jerks were jumping on my cars when I wasn't looking? Yeah, NO. So I went into tough mode.

"My freezer was the last straw for me. Doing this to your harmless dog was plain shitty. If I don't have my freezer back IMMEDIATELY, I'm going to file a police report. Then I'm going to call my friends in SAR (ran by the sheriff's office here in our county) and ask them to start sending at least one patrol car by everyday. As a former SAR member and volunteer firefighter, it would happen." Their faces all got an interesting look on it.

"I know that would piss some people off around here, but that puppy was shitty work. They knew who and where and it was a little dog that didn't bite or even threaten to bite anyone." Spread the word. If my freezer isn't back and another animal is so senselessly hurt, I will be calling the police and they will be patrolling. Daily, if not more often."

Hell, I might anyway. Through the talking things out process, it has occurred to me that I might be dealing with cousins on this manner. The mom is looney. I mean seriously. Has come and threatened my MIL on occasion. Well, now the 19 yo daughter JUST found out she has cancer and my DH mom and dad are over there a lot. I don't know what I'm going to do if I find out it was them. They better hope the neighbors don't find out. Two dogs shot in a week is enough to start a feud. I would end up in the middle of it. I so don't need that on my plate.

Anyway, with the threat of constant police patrols (It would happen. They drive by the area FREQUENTLY and it would take very little time or effort to swing through the town instead of skirting it.) in the air I hoped for less problems regarding the dogs.

That was yesterday. And oh yeah, did I mention that my boys all followed me out and locked the door? Seriously, I was locked out.

So around noon, my teenager comes rushing in. "We found the freezer. It's not very far from here. We need a tarp."

"Where is it?"

"In the ditch that's not really a ditch."

I knew exactly what they meant. LOL I gave them keys to the van instead and they brought it back. It still had a magnet we had on it from before it went into storage. It was ours. The model placard on the front was cracked but otherwise it's in fine condition.

Amazing what a little networking will do. Now if we can spread the word about the dogs. Keep them tied up and quit shooting the harmless ones with homes.

Part 2

So I started this on Sunday's post, I'm setting this to auto post (first time ever!) because a friend has suggested that I go overnight hunting with her before the season fully ends. However, I didn't want to leave y'all hanging until Wednesday. (And yes, Y'all is something I was saying due to a play I was in. I had not quite gotten it out of my system before living in TX. Now, I doubt I ever will :P)

We left our disgruntled hero waiting to see if a hospital visit was in order and our heroine trying not to laugh.

Without further ado, Part 2 in our fairy tail...

Out of habit, Leona dialed the Xray department where her father in law worked during the day.

"X-ray department." A woman answered the phone absently.

"I'm sorry, I meant to call the main number. But maybe you can help. If my husband was just bit by mice does he have to be seen by a doctor?" Leona just barely kept the laughter out of her voice.

"Um, I don't know. Let me ask someone." The nurse spoke slowly as if confused. Leona listened to the muffled voices, giving her husband covert looks under her eyelashes.

"Is it infected?" The female voice finally asked.

"I don't know. It just happened." Leona was a little exasperated. Really? How was she supposed to know?

"Okay. Well, he's probably okay. Why would he bite a mouse?" The disembodied voice asked.

Leona sat in stunned silence for a moment. "You think my husband bit the mouse." A bark of laughter burst out of her. "No," she finally said breathlessly. "He was bit twice by a mouse." There was no stopping the giggles now. She could imagine the gossip going around the hospital now.

"Oh, in that case, he needs to see a doctor soon," the nurse said so fast that it was apparent that would have been her initial answer if she hadn't been thinking that it was the man biting the little rodent.

Leona hung up and took a deep breath to still the laughter.

"Okay, honey, we need to go. She said you have to see a doctor soon and your clinic doesn't open until Monday."

"Really? Now?" he was incredulous.

"You were bit by a rodent. You probably need to at least take antibiotics or something."

He starts shrugging into his coat when Leona stops him. "You're going to have to wait a minute because I have to change this shirt," she said emphatically.

She pulled the picture of the John Deere tractor out away from her chest with both hands and peered down on it. "There is no way on God's green earth that I am going to the hospital in a John Deere shirt to tell them my husband was bit by a mouse."

"I--" he started to say than changed his mind. "Okay. You know I only got bit because I was trying to put it outside instead of killing it."

"Yes, honey, I know," she said, her voice muffled through the shirt she was putting on. She knew he would figure out how hard it was not to be laughing if she kept saying 'honey' but it was hard. "You're my hero. It is really sweet that you were trying to help me not feel so bad. Really it is. I love you." She meant every word. It was probably the most romantic thing he'd done in ages. Worrying about her feelings over a mouse was above and beyond as far as she was concerned.

Twenty minutes later they pulled into the emergency room parking lot. Leona had stifled giggles off and on all the way to the hospital.

"Honey, you will probably have to explain it. I'm sorry. I won't be able to without cracking up too bad." She got out of the car and shut the door.

"I noticed. I'll take care of it," he said.

At the admitting window they went through the initial paperwork. When Nathan began describing the incident, a giggle escaped Leona. The woman in admitting lost it a little and grinned.

"Oh no, don't laugh," Leona said. "I won't be able to hold back." It didn't help. They were both laughing as the receptionist tried to finish asking the necessary questions. Nathan took it all in good naturedly and even smiled a little himself.

The triage nurse was almost through when she realized he was bitten on both thumbs. When she asked how that happened, Nathan sighed. He knew it was going to be the end of her ability to not laugh. He was right.

When the nurse heard how he had ended up with both thumbs bitten, she smiled.

"You should get a cat," she said.

"We are," the couple responded in unison.

An ER nurse came and got him from the lobby and they went back to a corner room. When she heard the story her lips twitched. Leona was laughing outright by this point. The story was funnier every time. She kept having to assure her husband that she loved him and he was her hero for trying to save the mouse, but it was funny.

The nurse then told him we should get a cat. Nathan and Leona rolled their eyes. It was Nate who answered. "We are. It's on its way."

Leona studiously went back to the newspaper whe was reading in an attempt to distract herself.

Then the robust, good natured doctor arrived. "We're going to give you a tetnus shot and antibiotics. You should be fine. If you show any signs of infection or get a fever, come back or go see your doctor." He laughed as well at the story. "Get a cat," he said while leaving.

"We are," Nathan said yet again, setting off Leona's giggles.

A few minutes later the doctor came back to shut the door as she was giggling uncontrollably now. They'd forgotten to tell the doctor they had the mouse with them. It was in the plastic sack Nathan had carried in and promptly set somewhere because neither one of them had wanted to hold onto it.

He looked at the mouse than back at the couple with his eyebrows raise? "This is the mouse that bit you? This little thing? No wonder she is laughing," he said indicating her with the nod of his head.

"They told us we had to come in," Nathan said defensively, but with no real heat.

"Yes, yes. It's true. But," he seemed to change his mind and said instead. "The nurse will be back soon with your tetanus shot. Good night." Smiling hugely at us with his large straight teeth, he left the room closing the door behind him.

The nurse came in and gave him his shot and his antibiotics. Going over the signs to watch for again and handing him a prescription. She smiled at us, twinkling. "Be careful next time," she admonished.

"Oh, we will," Nathan promised her as Leona giggled again.

By the time they left the hospital it was two in the morning. He had been scheduled to work a twelve hour shift at five. He wasn't going to make it.

Leona had to work at seven so they went home and he called and left a message explaining about the shot that gave him side effects not appropriate for working with machinery--dizziness and nausea.

The next day, Nathan went back to work. How the men at work howled at him. When they could stop laughing they gave him a new nickname. "Mickey it is you. You were felled by a little mouse."

Leona's twitter friends were laughing as well. Some even suggested he might turn into a weremouse. She laughed out loud. As a former EMT Leona knew how to handle a lot of things. Could even help save a life if needed. But having her husband look so insulted at being bit by a tiny mouse all for love was too much.

The war on the mice is now very personal for both of them. Pregnant mice, young mice, have been spotted scurrying around the closests and across the floors.

"Laugh it up. Soon, I shall be the one laughing. The cat is coming," she said grimly to one especially openly rebellious mouse.

Yes, definitely one too many Disney movies.

The End. For now.

I'm here... Really

I had a long week, but mostly productive. I got called to work and ended up working three days, not just one. Which, as it turned out, was fortuitous as my husband missed a day of work that would have included 8 hours of over time :(

Guess how much my three days of work would have put us ahead? About the same amount as we lost. So, that's the breaks. Does anyone know the story of how he ended up losing a day of work?? I'm going to tell it...

Part 1

Once upon a time, in a not so far off land, there lived a woman named Leona who had seen too many Disney movies. All those cute little mice who were so smart and loveable. She hated the thought of killing them but the time came where she had to. Life in the real world included mice that left nasty messes.

She struggled with the concept of having to kill these maurading mice even as they ransacked her yarn, but she asked her husband to please pick up traps. Well, the traps almost worked. Her and her family caught one mouse in over a week. A far cry from the more than twenty she was sure were living in her house. She had no idea why so many, but it didn't matter. She had a baby to protect.

Then she had a bright idea! Make a humane house trap. It worked. It looked lovely and the mice liked it. Yet, they were never caught. They sniffed it out, she saw them, but they never fell in.

Now these mice were not afraid of mere humans. In fact, they laughed at the humans. The mice stopped to watch the funny creatures play video games. Only running if you got too close to their space. Their space. Really. That's how they see it.

They ran across the living room, barely ducking behind objects. They ate whatever they wished whenever they wished. The only thing that seemed to stop them was Tupperware. Nothing else slowed these theives down.

Poor Leona. She despaired of ever getting rid of them. Hundreds of dollars of yarn, countless amount of food lost. Gone forever. Why was she stuck with so many?

One night, she sets out a box of butter to soften over night so she can make her husband cookies. Real butter. Not margarine. The next day, she found the butter box all the way across the kitchen, near the fridge with the sticks out and partially eaten. The mice had struck again!

Now she was furious. To Leona, it had become personal. The war was on. She started being diligent about chasing them out of her living area whenever she even thought she heard them. She found their holes and put traps in front so they had to go over the trap to get out. It worked!

Once. One mouse died.

After that, the mice set the trap off before coming out. How in the... Well she was getting manic about trying to trap the mice and get them out of her house. She moved her yarn into an empty room she had recently shampooed. The mice followed and more yarn was lost. Why were there so many mice in her house?

Then her mother in law, a loving woman who used to live in the very same house, pointed out the obvious.

"Honey, they cleaned up at the house behind you, didn't they? Burning all the brush and taking away all those old rusty cars and junk? Maybe that's where all the mice are coming from."

"Holy cow, of course," she replied. "I'm sure that's it. Fifty years of collecting junk and brush all of the sudden cleaned and burned probably sent all the wildlife in a tizzy. Explains the huge rush of spiders we had as well." She was frustrated. It was fine they figured out the why of the influx but she still had to chase them out.

"A cat! We shall get that cat my daughter has tried to give me. I'll have to talk my husband into it, but I'm so sick of the mice." A few days later, Nathan, her husband had agreed. Now she had to get ready for the cat. Buy food, litter, and make a place for it.

But work called and put a kind in their plans. Leona had to work. One night, after her shower, she dresses in her favorite night shirt--her John Deere Tractor shirt and shorts. While in the bathroom, she hears a trap go off in her room.

"Nate, what was that? Sounded like a trap."

"It was. I'm checking them now," he replied. A minute later he finds the trap. It has a mouse stuck by its foot and tail. He has no trouble killing the rodents, but knows of his wife's misgivings. He picks up the trap intending to let the mouse go outside. It bites him. He puts it in his other hand to look at bite and the mouse bites his other hand.

He yelled and threw the mouse. She came running out of the bathroom. "What happened?" she asked worriedly.

"The damn thing bit me," he said grumpily.

Leona couldn't help it. She choked on a laugh. "Oh, I'm sorry. You have to go to the hospital now." She was trying hard not to laugh. Really. He sounded so disgruntled though.

"What? Why?" He said surprised and not at all pleased.

"I don't know. Rabies or something. You got bit by a wild rodent."

"Are you sure?" He eyed her suspiciously as the laughter had leaked out on the last words.

"Yes, I'll look it up online." She hurriedly ducked her head behind the doorway before he saw the grin threatening to spill across her face.

"Just call the damn hospital. If they say I have to be seen, I will."

Part 2 coming tomorrow.