I went to the gym tonight…talking about it over at FatChicksRunning.
Hope y’all have a good weekend. I dunno if it’ll be a blogging weekend or not for me. And who knows, I’m drinking tonight, so y’all might get lucky and get a drunk blog later
Wouldn’t that be something? A dirty little secret (mmmm gingers) and a drunk blog all in one night?
Keep your fingers crossed. Until then, enjoy…
I’m buying groceries this morning. I hate that task–but I love to eat, so there you have it.
For a much more fun post (actually several) head over to Fat Chicks Running. I actually posted a video blog yesterday. Yes, it’s true. I also did a very bad impression of South Park’s Cartman–you don’t wanna miss that! Be sure and scroll down to see it.
This morning I woke up to a very nice surprise–Amanda of Amanda’s Little Rock blog on About.com gave the Fat Chicks a shout out. That was awesome. Pop over and tell her thanks for us. 😉
Check y’all later!
Fishdog is headed to Oxford for the week. It’s weird having the house all quiet like during the day. Even though I don’t see him, I know he’s downstairs, working away. Plus I always hear his music. I’m thinking about going downstairs and turning on the radio…
I’m writing again today. Got lots to do and not much time to do it. Yesterday was a semi-success. Didn’t meet my goal pages, but I got through a difficult to write scene, so that’s something.
I posted at FatChicksRunning today about starting back after an 8 day hiatus. Check it out.
Anything going on with you guys?
Mac is back. She’s a little tired from being worked on and having her 80 gig hard drive replaced with a 120 gig hard drive, but she’s happy. I still haven’t gotten her completely set up–the internetz connection keeps disappearing for no apparent reason. That happened when I first brought Mac home, so I know it’s a setting issue and I just have to find it.
The sad news is, her old hard drive = toast. It’s so toasted that none of the data was recoverable. We have the drive in our possession, and if ever we have a spare $1000 lying around, we’re going to ship the toast to a specialty recovery place and give it the old college try.
I’m totally at peace with the loss. It sucks, but I knew better. And now I’m writing like the wind to try to make up my lost time. The good news is, I really wasn’t happy with what I had written, so this forces me to back the hell up and start over from chapter 2. I can do that. It’s a good thing I’m a fairly fast writer!!!
I am going to pick up my running today. My cold has moved out of my head. It’s trying to move into my chest but I’m fighting it. I have that damn persistent itch between my ear and my throat. I’ve been tempted to take a wire hanger to my ear…but every time I turn on the closet light to find the right utensil, a panicked voice starts whispering “No More Wire Hangers!” and it freaks me out.
A Rader Story:
I realized the other day I haven’t told you guys a Rader story in a long time. It’s a shame really, because he’s always so damn entertaining. I’m sure we’ll have more inappropriate conversations to report at some point–but there will never be another licking nipples report. That was just too much.
Rader is a charmer. He always has been. And I’ve always known his charm was going to be the death of me. Last night, I got the full effect of his charm and his sense of humor. Now, the child is only 10, but he’s tall and handsome and he carries himself like a teenager half the time. We were sitting in the living room and Fishdog told Rader to take his folded clothes from the coffee table and put them in his room. Rader (without missing a beat) winked at me, smiled and said “Sure.” He knew he was being cheeky and he was completely unapologetic about it. That one little wink struck me as so intentionally flirty–like the hot guy in high school flirting with the cute quiet girl.
When he winked, I flashed forward five years and saw exactly what kind of young man he was going to be. And boy are we in trouble. Charming, good looking, funny, flirty and smart. I am not ready for this. The mothers of the girls of Little Rock are not ready for this…
Hope you guys have a great weekend. I’ll be busy WRITING (I know, you’re shocked). I’ll also be running and blogging over at FatChicksRunning so don’t forget to stop by!
It was foggy outside today. But not in my head! I believe I have beaten this stupid cold into submission. I may even go running again today for the first time in a week. Whoot!
Last night, Fishdog and I were chatting away while watching Top Chef (3 cheers for Tom Colicchio!) Fishdog thinks it would be a great idea if we prepared a new dish from a different country each week to expand our palates and our cooking skills.
You know, in theory, this is a great damn idea. In reality, I am not Louisa Edwards. She and Stinger are chef-like entities. I’m closer to Ronald McDonald to their Gordon Ramsay.
Don’t get me wrong, I can cook. I enjoy baking pies and roasting turkeys, and cooking big meals for dinner parties. Hell, I volunteer to host Thanksgiving every year. You don’t do that if you can’t cook. I have the skill, but it’s not a bone-deep love like it is for Louisa and I’m not sure if I’m dedicated enough to trying something new every week because frankly, it just sounds like work. Cooking relaxes Louisa…but it wears me the hell out.
I also enjoy trying new things–especially if I’m the one who prepared the food (that way I know what I’m trying.) But if I’m going to go through the effort of fixing some new cuisine, I want everyone in the family to eat it. And where Rader is pretty much willing to try anything–Nemo? Meat and potatoes. Bacon and eggs. Spaghetti and meatballs. <–see a pattern? So I feel like my effort would be wasted because I have a kid who really won't give anything unknown a chance.
What do you think? Should I throw caution to the wind and start trying out simple dishes from other countries for something new? Or should I save that for special occasions and dinner parties? What do you suggest we try first?
ETA: stop by FatChicksRunning! today. I’m talking about how Size Does Matter…
Anything I post here today will just depress you. I’ll see if I can come up with something much more inspiring later.
I’ve blogged at Fictionistas and FatChicksRunning! today. Pop by for a visit.
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired! This was a long, emotional, stressful week. And now I have to clean my house because I’m having a little get together tomorrow night with my BFF from high school and my 2 college roommates.
Damn you dirt! Why you keep stalking me?
My stat counter has been a busy beaver lately. I’d like to welcome everyone from AIG, AG Edwards, Merrill Lynch and all the other financial institutions searching for the other Melissa Francis–the CNBC reporter. Also, to all the gossip mongers who are searching for “Melissa Francis naked,” “Melissa Francis boyfriend,” “Melissa Francis married,” “Melissa Francis breasts” I hope you’ve found what you’re searching for. There are no pics of reporter Melissa Francis here–naked or otherwise. And yes there are a few cleavage shots here and there on this blog, but none belong to her. She seems to be much more dignified than I am. (I’ve even been accused of being vulgar. *gasp! shock!*) But I appreciate your visit and I hope you’ll stop by again. 🙂
Writing report: I brutally cut a chapter yesterday and started over. I was totally stuck and finally realized I wasn’t writing the right stuff. So I just CUT it. Snip. Just like that. And the words started flowing a little easier yesterday afternoon. Here’s hoping that continues.
I’m anxiously awaiting cover information for BITE ME! My editor emailed a couple of weeks ago after she and the art director discussed the concept. I was so thrilled because it was almost EXACTLY as I had always pictured my cover. Now I’m dying to see if that concept remained or if they tried it and it didn’t work and they moved on to something else.
Covers are funny because what marketing decides will sell might not be at all what the author likes or envisioned. And the author has no choice in the matter. Sure they can give their opinion, but the fact is, the final decision belongs to the publisher. So as an author, you just keep your fingers crossed that you love (or even sorta like) the cover you’re given because, guess what? It doesn’t matter. It’s yours to keep.
I have to say, I’m not really worried I won’t like the cover because Harper has done a fantastic job with their YA covers overall…so I have every expectation of being very happy.
Okay, I’ve randomly discussed all sorts of things in this post. Now I’m going to wrap it up and get back to writing. Y’all stop by FatChicksRunning! today to see how my 3rd run went this week.
Have a great weekend!
I’m talking about Feeding an Obsession over at FatChicksRunning today. Pop over and say hi.
I’m still feeling the afterglow of the election. I am so profoundly proud of our country right now. I know change will be slow, but in my heart, I do believe Obama will make a difference. He was the right choice.
I’m angry with the people of Arkansas right now. They voted in a law that states unmarried couples cannot adopt or foster kids. This is just another attempt to deny gay people the same rights as everyone else–however, this law affects every unmarried couple. I can’t believe we’re living in 2008 and the world is still this bigoted. It’s shameful.
LOVE SUCKS! is coming along, slowly but surely. I’m going to really enjoy getting to the meat of this story–there is a new character I’m dying to write…amazingly enough, he resembles a younger version of Spike from Buffy. Hmmmm, maybe this calls for some Buffy research….
Oh yeah. Definitely requires some in depth research…
That was the headline of the article in Sunday’s Arkansas Democrat Gazette…What a headline, right?
We thought so…especially since it was the headline for the story of how I met Fishdog.
Yup, we were in the paper on Sunday. It was awesome. Here’s a link for the whole article.
Here’s a little taste:
“There has always been sort of a six degrees of separation thing between Mark and me,” says Melissa, who went to high school in Bryant and who had friends who knew Mark, a student at Little Rock’s Catholic High School. “Our circle of friends was kind of parallel.”
On the night they finally did meet, Jan. 24, 1992, Melissa was on a date with one guy and was plagued by the unwanted attentions of another.
Mark had graduated from Arkansas State University at Jonesboro the December before and just moved back to Little Rock. He had seen Melissa, a student at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, the night before with her friends at White Water Tavern, but she was having too much fun then to notice him.
When he walked through the door at Juanita’s, though, she was all agog.
“I just remember being very smitten,” Melissa says. “It was his hair — which is really funny, considering he has none now. Back then it was long. He had a confidence about him, and he had a great smile and a great laugh, which I love.”
Heh. He was a guy and I was agog.
The best part of the article? (besides all the cutesy lovey-dovey stuff?) They plugged BITE ME! 🙂 It was really cool seeing myself called a ‘novelist’ and then reading
Her first book, Bite Me!, is scheduled to hit bookstore shelves in fall 2009.
Heheh.
and here is the happy couple now. Hmmmm. Not quite the same. My, my 15.5 years of marriage sure does a number on folks…
Today in the blogosphere:
Today I’m at Fictionistas discussing the postmortem of Mel-O-Ween…
Yesterday I blogged at FatChicksRunning! about Week 2, Day 1 of training…and today, Dana is talking about jogging at 10:20 PM. That’s dedication folks…
Before I get started…did you know you can pre-order Maria Geraci’s debut novel BUNCO BABES TELL ALL? Cuz you can. And you better. Or I’ll haunt you. And you won’t like it.
pre-order now. Go on. I’ll wait…
So today is Mel-O-Ween. You got any special plans? I’m going to be a Zombie this year. My friend Stinkydog says she’s going to be a Mombie…cuz she’s pregnant. See what she did there? LOL Yeah, she’s not only Stinky…she’s funny, too!
Fishdog and Rader or going to be Thing 1 and Thing 2. Nemo is undecided. He’s gonna spray his hair and do some make up but really, 
that’s as far as he’s gotten. I’m supposed to take him to Walmart after school today so he can buy some ‘accessories.’ I love it. He’s going to accessorize a costume that doesn’t exist. Awesome.
I have to buy some worms to glue to my skin and stick in my ears. Zombies are wormy aren’t they? I should use gummy worms so I can eat them and gross everybody out. That would be funny.
I blogged over at FatChicksRunning today about day 3 of my training. It wasn’t pretty. But I survived.
For your viewing pleasure…here’s a preview of tonight…
Bitchin' Fiction: Musings by author Melissa McKenzie / Melissa Francis 