Author Archives: D.R. Slaten

Randoms Thoughts Part 3

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Hey look. Friday has rolled around. Once again, my brain is fried. And thus we have random thoughts.

I hate having a house telephone. The only people who call us on it are telemarketers and school officials. The only reason we have it is so that school officials can call us on it. However, everyone who matters calls us on our individual cell phones. I am giving serious thought to just getting rid of the house phone. Although it is cheap, I have a bundle, it is really worthless. The other reason is that it is a local number. My cell phone is not local. It is a number I had from Alaska. I no longer live in Alaska but with Nationwide calling plans, it really doesn’t matter anymore. At least in terms of cost. But seriously, if one more charity calls looking for a donation, I think I might go nuclear on their asses. Leave people alone. I swear if there is a charity I am interested in donating money to, I WILL find you. And yes, I do donate. But never to people who call me. NEVER.

So the weirdness of the weather sitch has me concerned. I hate it. I want it warm like yesterday. Winter was LONG. I need the sun and warmth of summer to be here like yesterday so I can get some rays and up my Vit. D and generally feel happier. Looking outside and seeing the sun then stepping out there anticipating warm and getting cold makes me sad. Really frickin’ sad. Like way sadder than when I expect it to be cold and it is. Maybe it’s global warming. Maybe it’s the cyclical nature of weather. I just don’t care. Give me warm. Now, please.

Here’s a fashion tip. Skinny jeans don’t look good on anybody. Men, women, large or skinny. They just don’t. If you are wearing skinny jeans thinking you are rocking the clothes, chances are people like me are laughing at you. Seriously. The only people skinny jeans look good are are those people who are so anorexic that skinny jeans are the only jeans that fit them and STILL they would look better in straight legs. But that’s just me. Skinny jeans are not forgiving AT ALL. And trust me, most of us need a little forgiving when it comes to our clothes. Um, because our bodies just need it that way.

If you are at a kids sporting event and you get into an argument with another parent or a coach or a ref, you are STUPID. Kinda like Jeff Foxworthy “here’s your sign…” Here is YOUR sign that you might be an idiot parent. A big one. Hey, I get it. You like your kid. You want your kid to win. But let’s face it, not all kids and not all kids’ teams are winners. Fighting with the other adults at the game make you look like an idiot. And it embarrasses your kid. Your kid won’t tell you. So I will. Stop being stupid. Stop living vicariously through your kid. Unless your kid is in the Olympics and the game matters in some way, let it go. Walk away. Be an adult. Seriously.

That is all.

Internet Shopping Feeds my Shoe Addiction

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I need a twelve step program for the depth of my love for shoes. I love them. I can’t get enough of them. It has gotten to the point that I have been told that before I buy another pair of shoes, I must throw out two. Being told that felt like a knife to my gut. Seriously? Throw away my shoes? Oh my god, are you frickin’ kidding me? Never gonna happen. NEVER. So I haven’t bought any shoes since that rule went into effect. Well, other than to replace shoes that get worn out or if a buckle breaks on one or if I get some as gifts.

I discovered internet shopping back in the day when I was feeding my shoe addiction. Shoes are like crack, you can’t just have one. So, I moved from going to actual stores to try them on, to perusing the internet to do my initial look-see. It works out great. Although now, with age and experience and an intimate knowledge of shoe designers sizing, I can pretty much tell if a pair of shoes is going to fit or not. Plus, places like Zappos allows you to return your shoes and get the right size. What a great concept and invention.

But the internet has done more than feed my shoe addiction, it has allowed me to branch out into other areas of consumerism and have things like wine, clothes, bedding, etc., delivered to my home. Usually at prices that are WAY better than I would find in an actual brick and mortar store. The same is not true for books however. Digital books to be exact. I can order real books for FAR less than retail price but the digital market hasn’t caught up yet. Which is a shame. I would buy WAY more digital books if the pricing were similar to what I could get from a used bookstore. It’s too bad really. Amazon, are you hearing me? Barnes and Noble, pay attention!!!

I am able to get wine from Wine Woot,, clothes from places like Hautelook, Gilt and Ruelala at a deep discount, sporting goods from Steep and Cheap, but I can’t get discounted ebooks. Seriously? The problem with that is I can buy real books for far less. Which do you think I am likely to do? It’s a bad business practice to keep the price of digital books so high after the initial offering. Something has to give if used books can be had for so much less. I know. I internet shop a lot.

Books and Shoes and really everything should be able to be had on internet for much lower prices than you can find at brick and mortar stores. Everyone who buys things knows this. It has to do with lower overhead. Much lower. So get with the program because I would LOVE to say that books are my addiction and that books are like crack. Until then, I still have my shoes.

Coconut Curry Soup with Lobster

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When I lived in Alaska, I traveled to Hawaii a lot. For vacation with my family and for work. One of the times I was in Hawaii, I got to stay on Maui which was a treat because I mostly stayed on Oahu. During that trip, I rode horses through volcano canyons, traveled the road to Hana and ate a lot of good food. One of the places that I remember eating at during that trip was Mama’s Fish House. They had the most sublime Coconut Curry Soup with Lobster. I have tried recreating it over the years. The recipe below is the closest I’ve gotten. It is rich and a little spicy. It is also a lot delicious.

If you are ever on Maui, stop by Mama’s. Some of the best seafood I’ve ever eaten was found there. You won’t be disappointed.

Coconut Curry Soup with Lobster

3 11 ½-oz. cans coconut milk
1 oz. ginger root- keep whole or quarter for ease of removal
2 sticks lemongrass, chopped roughly in big chunks
1 Tbsp. fish sauce
¼ cup sugar, brown (I actually prefer palm sugar or coconut sugar)
2 lime leaves, kaffir preferably
1-1inch piece galengal- again, keep whole or quarter
1 tsp. Thai red curry (I add a little more cause I like things spicy)
1 cup lobster stock, or chicken stock, or fish stock (more for thinning)
1 lb lobster, cooked and diced

optional garnish:
1/2-1 lb julienned shitake mushrooms
1/4  lime juice (almost necessary to help cut the richness)
1/4/-1/2 cup minced cilantro
1/4-1/2 lb julienned carrots
3-4 stalks thinly sliced green onions

DIRECTIONS:

1. Rinse ginger and any other item which have been grown directly in dirt in water and dry off. Place coconut milk, ginger, stock, lemongrass, galengal, sugar, curry and fish sauce in a pot. Bring to a boil and then simmer for 20 minutes.

2. Add lime leaves and infuse them into the soup. About 15-20 minutes. Strain the curry soup of all the items in it. Add half the cooked lobster. When you go to plate, add a small mound of lobster in the middle for presentation and extra lobster chunks–always a plus.

3. Garnish with carrots, shiitake, lime juice, green onions and cilantro leaves in any combo and amount according to your taste buds. However, limes are almost not optional.

April Blog Chain- April Fools

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I’m participating in this month’s AW’s Blog Chain. We get a prompt and then have to write something. Don’t worry, I didn’t write anything smutty. lol But I did have fun writing the piece that follows. That being said, below are  the rules.


This month’s prompt:

April Fools

Instructions:

Simply post your blog’s URL in this thread to join. Each post should be less than 1000 words if possible. Read and comment on other participants’ posts if you possibly can–they’ll be doing the same for you!

April’s Fool

She stepped around the body that landed at her feet. He didn’t get back up. The blood pooling around him might be the answer to his immobility. Not that she really cared.

The noise hit her a second before the stench. Booze, vomit and body odor. Eau de Bubba’s bar. Dirty sock smell was all that was missing. Her face carefully blank despite her disgust at being here.

She weaved her way over to the bar. The bartender gave her a chin tip.

“Tequila,” she ordered.

The tequila was delivered without salt, without lime. This wasn’t that type of bar. She was surprised the bottle hadn’t accompanied the shot glass. Because it was that kind of bar.

She took her glass and drained it. She fought the grimace. The tequila was vile, cheap and burned like hellfire.

She waved for another. It was a double shot kinda night.

She left some money on the bar next to her glass. She turned her back, resting her elbows on the bar and scanned the room. Her eyes moved until she saw the person that had drawn her here. At least the information had been good.

He didn’t see her until she started walking toward him. He went still. His face went white. Pulling himself together, he relaxed his body. It was false. She knew it was false. But still, she gave him points for the effort.

He should be scared.

“Mel,” she greeted him as if this was a social call and she was the neighborhood greeting committee.

“Lucy,” he greeted her back. His voice was almost even. But she could hear the tremor beneath the forced calm. “What brings you to Bubba’s? This ain’t your usual haunt.”

They both knew what brought her to this pigsty.

“Alice told April that you hadn’t made it over to see her even after April gave you an extension. Asked me to come find out why,” she explained her presence when it became apparent that Mel wasn’t going to say anything else.

“Well you see. I had planned to go yesterday like I was suppose to but my old lady got sick and I had to take her to the doctor and then I had a few things to take care of today and then time got away from me and then I had to meet some people here,” Mel rambled. “I was planning on going tomorrow if you want to tell Alice.”

Somehow Mel had come to the conclusion that she was there on a fact finding mission. Had he been using the small part of his brain that was left from the shit he shoved up his nose, he would have realized that she never went on fact finding missions.

Fact finding wasn’t in her job description. Hadn’t ever been. Wouldn’t ever be.

“I’ll be sure to let her know when I see her,” was all she said.

She felt the two arrive at her back. Mel wasn’t as stupid as he looked. He had somehow signaled for back up. Shit, why couldn’t this night be getting better instead of worse.

“A simple job Alice says. Won’t take you very long she says. Be in and out quick she tells me,” she muttered under her breath, repeating Alice’s earlier words.

If Alice was the brains, Lucy was the brawn. Woman could and did run these streets. And Mel had tried to avoid Alice by using April. April was soft. Alice was not.

Mel puffed up once he caught sight of his backup. “April gave me the extension. She’d give me another one.” He obviously thought she gave a shit. Or that Alice gave a shit. Whether April gave a shit didn’t matter.

“Yeah, I know,” Lucy said noncommittally. She didn’t work for April. She worked for Alice.

“Tell Alice I’ll come around tomorrow,” he told her with a touch of bravado brought on by his hired muscle.

She started to stand. Glancing into the mirror behind Mel, she pinpointed the position of the two that were supposed to have his back. Keeping her senses open to make sure they didn’t move, she got all the way up. Her body position hid Mel from the men who were suppose to protect him.

“I’ll be sure to let Alice know what you said Mel,” she said calmly. “Alice doesn’t much like looking like a fool. Going behind her back to April, well that just wasn’t smart.”

“Alice isn’t a fool,” his response was conciliatory, his hands held up.

He thought he was safe. Fool. He couldn’t have been more wrong. Just because she didn’t usually let her targets see her coming didn’t mean that it never happened. It did. Not often. But still, it happened.

She moved fast. So fast that the two behind her didn’t have time to react. She had her blade out slicing through Mel’s throat so quickly that no one without a direct line of sight would even see his head wobble. The cut so clean, his head barely moved. Just as quickly, she replaced her blade, long knife really, back in her thigh sheath. She pivoted and walked past the two guards Mel had signaled over.

As muscle went, they were a big fail. You get what you pay for. Mel was in deep to Alice. He didn’t have a lot of cake left over to pay anyone. He had obviously gotten exactly what he paid for.

What a fucking waste. All of it.

“No, April’s the fool and now so are you,” she finally responded softly as she walked away.

In her head she counted it down as she strode to the door. “3…2…1…”

“Hey,” someone called out. She’d bet it was either dufus one or dufus two. Right on time. But really, it was already too late.

“Hey…” the closing door cut off the rest.

One down, April to go.

 

Here are the other April Chain Bloggers. Go read their posts. Read and comment. Or just read.

orion_mk3 – http://nonexistentbooks.wordpress.com (link to post) 
Ralph Pines – http://ralfast.wordpress.com (link to post)
Angyl78 – http://jelyzabeth.wordpress.com/ (link to post)
Araenvo – http://www.simonpclark.com/ (link to post)
MsLaylaCakes – http://www.taraquan.com/ (link to post)
Lady Cat – http://randomwriterlythoughts.blogspot.ca/ (link to post)
LanaK – http://lanaketrick.blogspot.com/ (link to post)
Lyra Jean – http://beyondtourism.wordpress.com/ (link to post)
Sudo_One – http://sudoone.wordpress.com/ ((link to post)
articshark – http://www.drslaten.com/blog (link to post) <——————-you are here
Ghostwriter-Mom – http://www.fictionblueprints.com/ (link to post)
AngelaGreenfield – http://www.becomingawriterblog.com/ (link to post)

Music Monday feat. the Blues

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Some music evokes certain feelings. And certain feelings lend themselves to certain types of music. Genre isn’t just about books.

My mom died almost two years ago this month. I miss her terribly. Most times the loss of her is a momentary punch in the gut. Other times, I wallow in how much I miss her, how heart broken I am that she is gone.

There is something about blues and jazz that just naturally fits when I am feeling sad. Normally, I listen to male and female jazz and blues singers/performers. But when it’s about my mom, I turn to women singing. It just seems fitting.

And while these aren’t the exact songs I listen to when I am sad about my mom, I hope you enjoy the following selections of Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald and Etta James.

 

Smutty Sunday 4/21/13

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Yeah, Yeah. I know. Today is the day that I help point you in the direction of smut to read. But before we do, here is a thought for the day. I heard a comedian say this… it’s only a joke if we both laugh. Think about that. How many times has someone said something hurtful, racists, criminal, etc. and played it off as only being a joke. If we both laugh, then yeah. If only the speaker is laughing then it is something other than a joke. Something that most people would only think would be okay told in a joking format. But underneath? Well, that dog don’t hunt, yeah?

So on to my normally scheduled program. Ilona Andrews and her Kate Daniels books are a series that I have read again and again. Seriously. They are that good. Urban Fantasy at its best. Not all Sci/Fi has to be high fantasy or deep space nine-ish. lol Urban Fantasy is part of that genre as well. A sub-set to be sure but nevertheless it is a pretty damn entertaining sub-set. And when it comes to my dollars, I like to be entertained. I like to read stories that seem fresh with strong characters. Ilona Andrews is a husband and wife team. They write kick ass books. I like the Kate Daniels ones the best but their Edge books rock just as well.

New Adult has been all the craze for a while. Everyone wants to be a New Adult Author, to rep a New Adult Author or to publish a New Adult author. I have waded through a lot of them. Most of the writing sucks. But there is a gem or two to be had. R.K Lilley’s Up in Air series is good as is Jodi Ellen Malpas’s This Man series. Both are trilogies so you get the characters for more than one book. One is set in the US, the other in the UK. I like books about British people. They say funny things. lol Some of the New Adult stuff seems to have a lot of conflicts and issues that don’t ring true. These two have decent explanations for why the characters are the way they are and a decent storyline that holds it all together.

For adult smut, I really like Lorelei James’ Rough Rider series. First, there is an assload of books in the series. Always a good thing. Then there are smokin’ hot cowboys in those assloads of books. Another good thing. Last but not least is the sex in them there books. A great thing. It’s an amalgamation of goodness all rolled into one. Most are M/F but one is MMF and then there are instances of menage that the characters engage in on an individual basis. See, something for everybody. lol

Now to my last recommendation for today. It’s an oldie but goodie. Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. I have read this book at least once a year since it was first introduced to me. I love this book. When I first read it, I identified with Scout. Then I got to know all that was good about Atticus. At some point, I pondered Boo. But it wasn’t until I really thought about the old lady kicking her opium habit that I got the full flavor of the book. All of those things make this a book that I read again and again. Because as I get older, Scout, Atticus and Boo are people I wish I knew but it the little old lady that I wish I were. I want to be her. Courage. Strength. Determination. All of that. To be FREE of addiction and to meet death unfettered. And to make that happen. 30 minutes at a time. Strong. Brave. Resolute. Any of us can do that in 30 minute bites. Yup, I want to be her when I grow up. I surely do.

No News is No News

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I haven’t watched the news in years. I stopped watching when we, as a nation,  first went to the desert to find a man about some bombs. At that time, we detoured into another country that also had sand to find a man that was a bully. See when you know people that were in that huge sand box, watching the news wasn’t so much about the general state of the world and our actions in the world. There had been incidences where people had been watching TV and saw something. That something had been reported in real time and those people watching hadn’t been given notice that the occurrence had occurred. I didn’t want that to happen to me. So I stopped watching the news.

It’s been many years since I last watched the news regularly. I’m not a news nazi. I don’t turn off the TV if it inadvertently gets put on the evening news. I just don’t try to find a channel covering news. I don’t think I’ve missed much by not tuning into current events. If I want to know something, I know how to acquire that information. If something really big happens, I know that I will find out. Because big events have a way of making themselves known through various other outlets that don’t have me watching the news directly.

News stories are typically as follows: someone died, someone got swindled out of a bunch of money, politicians are fighting each other and one or more celebrities are acting poorly. On any given day, those stories are what gets reported with differing names depending on who the story is actually about. The individual names change, the news stories do not. And I just don’t care. Unless it directly impacts me and my life, those same news stories being reported again and again with minor variations in theme just don’t interest me. If it does directly impact me, trust me, someone will tell me in some way that doesn’t include me watching the news.

This past week is a prime example. I didn’t find out about Boston or Texas by watching the news. I was told from various other social and media outlets. So my ability to know what is happening in the world around me isn’t detrimentally effected by shutting off the evening and late night news. But my quality of life is so much better for not listening to the drivel that passes for news today. Important information gets filtered to me while I cut out the bullshit that is routinely reported. Win-Win. For me at least.

I might start watching the news if they gave me stories about humanitarian efforts in little known areas or achievements by people who no one had thought would be achievers or something different from the typical stories I listed above. But that doesn’t happen. Won’t happen. We have a serious homogenization of the news going on. And where a few years ago or a few decades ago, you could get different news from differing news outlets, that just doesn’t happen anymore. It could be because most news is owned by big conglomerates that own several news outlets and pump out the same news stories. Don’t get me wrong, some news organizations do slant the news depending on their political and philosophical outlooks but they are still reporting the same stories. It’s just done with a conservative slant or a liberal slant or a religious slant. Same shit, same shit.

I stopped watching the news many years ago and it hasn’t effected by ability to gather information about the things I want to know about. I don’t notice the loss of not watching the news. Not one bit. If anything, it has made my life better. The information I receive is more streamlined and tailored to what interests me. I feel that all in all, I am better off not watching the news. How sad is that?

Random Thoughts Part 2

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I think Fridays will be Random Thought day cause for some reason I am too tired to think of a coherent topic and I have run out of stuff to say.

If you’re a cop and you come to question me about what happened to my neighbor AND you figure out that I don’t know shit, clue me in. See I thought when the paramedics and fire trucks showed up at his house that he had a heart attack or fell down the stairs or started a kitchen fire or something involving the frickin’ fire department. So when the cops come around the next day and ask me if I saw anything or heard anything or if anyone hated my neighbor, it freaks me right the fuck out. Umm, cause that would mean that someone broke into his house and hurt him. AND I live right next door. See how a person could be FREAKED the fuck out about that?!?!? Seriously, clue me in. I need to know. Not because I am a curious bitch but because I live right NEXT DOOR.

If you make MP3 players, iPods, etc. make it so I can put the music list on multiple computers. Cause if my playlist and updates are on a computer that craps out, I am screwed. And not in the good way. But in a very bad way. Very. Bad. This means I am forever locked into the playlist that is on my MP3 player. Well at least until I wear out the battery. You know the one that I can’t change out because I just can’t. The manufacturer made it impossible for me to do so. Some technologies ROCK because they give us something we didn’t even know we needed until we got it and now we can’t live without it. At the same time they SUCK cause those same manufacturers are looking to lock us into their product, their company. Here’s a tip for doing that that has nothing to do with screwing over your customers- make a KICK ASS product and just keep making it KICK ASS. That is what keeps your customer base loyal. Not this bullshit trying to keep us attached to the teat by making it impossible to change a frickin’ battery or share music or whatever.

I have bats that fly at night around my yard. Oh my god. Scared me spitless. I was sitting out there drinking a bottle of wine, yes I said bottle- go big or go home, and what should I start seeing but nocturnal flying things. Now I watch the discovery channel. I KNOW birds can’t fly at night, don’t fly at night. The only thing that would be flying at night are bats. Lots of bats. Like you see in bat cave numbers LOTS. In other words, holy shit batman. I also know I shouldn’t be afraid of them. They aren’t the blood sucking kind. They are the eating lots of bugs and keeping my backyard semi-bug free kind. Intellectually I know all of this. Still, they are freakin’ BATS. So I very quietly grabbed my wine bottle and skedaddled inside leaving the bats to do their thing.

If I state in a thread that I don’t like reading a certain trope and you come into that thread to tell me that trope has in fact happened to you in real life, don’t be offended if I don’t care. I don’t care that it really happened to you or 5 of your friends or even everyone you know. I just don’t care AND I don’t want to read about it. I will also make fun of you. Because you are arguing about what I want to read by using your real life as an example of why I am wrong. Umm, yeah no. Please take a logic class. One doesn’t necessarily follow the other. I wouldn’t care to read about that trope in a memoir, autobiography or any non-fiction that talks about that trope, I certainly don’t want to read fiction about it. The most you will get is an acknowledgment by me that yes that might happen in real life. Good for you. I still don’t want to read about it. I don’t care about you and your real life. I care about my dollars and what I spend them on when I buy something to read. Coming into a thread that talks about what people are tired of reading about and arguing that a trope is or can be somewhat realistic because you are a living example of that trope is… ummm… CRA-CRA. My preference in reading is not about you. Never has been. Never will be.

That is all.

Waxing vs. Lasering

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One of my characters has a Brazilian. Not too much of a problem right? But she is lasered bare instead of waxed bare. Which presents a slight issue. I need to be able to write about it correctly. Which means that I have to do some research. I wouldn’t have to do any research if the character was waxed bare. But because of the method she chose to have her brazilian, I do. Now normally I don’t mind research. It is one of the things I have always loved. My brain likes lots of useless facts. I like lots of useless facts. Would you believe me if I told you that trivial pursuit is one of my favorite games? It is. I suck at it but still.

Anyway back to the laser. So I am not looking forward to researching the whole lasering brazilian thing. Cause I know that waxing that area hurts. A Lot. Like bring tears to your eyes pain. But I do it anyway. Wanna know why? Cause they don’t tell you that once you wax, you can’t stop. Cause having STUBBLE in that area is uncomfortable. And not mildly uncomfortable but like shockingly uncomfortable. So much so that you will sell your first born to make it go away. Instead, I just keep getting waxed. Waxing is like eating potato chips, you can’t just have one.

So I already get my armpits lasered. I am tired of being all sweaty in the summer. Having to constantly shave my pits is not a pleasant thing. It is tedious. And must be done everyday in the summer because it is so freaking hot. So I bought a package this past winter. It is awesome really. I’m not sure why I waited so long. But lasering is not without its own pain. It feels like a thousand rubber bands are snapping at your skin. Now imagine that in your private areas. Waxing hurts as well, don’t get me wrong. But I know that pain already. I know I can handle it. I haven’t experienced the lasering of that area pain yet. But I will. Because I am a dedicated writer. I will research this particular practice so that I might write about it effectively.

See, I am a dedicated writer. If I can find out information that allows me to bring some realism to the table I will. Getting a brazilian laser is just the tip of the ice berg. I have an elevated sense of responsibility to my readers. I will endure pain for them. I’m a dedicated writer bitch. lol Cause that’s just how I roll.

 

Current Projects

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The bane of a writer’s life is all the ideas that bubble up inside the brain. So many stories, all limited in getting on the page by how fast I can type. At this point in my life, I really, really wish I had taken a typing course in high school or something. I didn’t. So now my stories are prisoners until I can liberate them slowly. In the meantime, I can use a pencil like a ninja. So I guess that would make me pencil ninja. Able to sharpen my tools and take copious notes in a single bound. So what if my superpower is that I can outline like nobody’s business. In the end, even with notes and outlines, I type like molasses.

Normally the speed of my typing isn’t too much of a problem. It takes my ideas a little while to percolate and become grownup enough to need to be told. At some point, they are so ready and ripe, they won’t leave me alone. I think about them when I am awake and I dream about them when I sleep. They hammer and hammer at me until they become the black on a white page and get told.

The problem right now though is that I have four stories in progress. And I feel a little schizophrenic. They are all clamoring to be told. Each one is yelling that it is more important than the other. As they yell over each other, I am finding it hard to listen to any one of them because I can’t hear just one clearly. I need them to take a number and stand in line. Otherwise, I fear that madness is not too far off. Okay, I am already a little crazy. But these four stories that I am in the process of writing are so not helping by being the crazy-making stories that they are. Each one feels like it is the most important. None of them want to take a backseat to the others. Unfortunately, I am only human and can only write one story at a time. Slowly. So very slowly.

I think the one that is winning out currently is my contemporary romance. It is going to be the first in a five to seven book series. I didn’t know it would be a series until I started writing it. But shortly after I was properly introduced to the characters, I realized that some of the secondary characters needed their story to be told. Those secondary stories aren’t even more than glimmers of thoughts. Yet. I have a feeling once I am done with the first story, one of the others will start making itself known in ways destined to bug me until I do what it wants. So this contemporary romance is winning out right now because even with all the yelling in the background, I can hear the voice so clearly. I can see the story in my mind.

I put my May-December bdsm story on the back burner. I started writing it and realized that the idea wasn’t quite ripe. It was hard for me to. see the story line clearly. And the writing was coming slowly, not because of my typing speed but because the story wasn’t completely mature. It was hard to put it away because even in the early stage, this story wants to be told. And it is a compelling story with some great characters. Plus, I don’t like stopping the story telling in mid story telling. If that makes sense. I feel a certain amount of pain when I stop. But it’s not ready and I can’t force it. I can feel that it will be ready soon though. Really soon.

The next book that I have partially written is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi/urban fantasy combo. Yes, yes, it is crossing genres (but not really). Which I don’t think is as bad a mixing metaphors but what do I know? This tale is going to be told in three parts. It came to me as a trilogy and it has remained that way. In fact, a lot of my stories come to me as trilogies. I don’t know why. In the end, I am glad. Because sitting down and trying to write a 300,000 word single title would really take me around the bend. I couldn’t do it. I won’t do it. I think this project is in three parts because it is a classic tale of questing. Only the main characters don’t know they are on a quest. Not yet. They will by the end.

My last current project is a middle grade/young adult space opera. Really it is more like a space western. It started off as a request to write something everyone could read cause I normally write naughty things. No smut in this one. At all. Just lots of shoot outs and action. Good guys versus bad guys, lots of ingenuity and some math and science thrown in for good measure. It is is the far future, unlike my PA Sci-Fi/UF which is in the near future. The far future has brought a lot of changes to Earth. A lot. But the basic stuff is still the same because no matter how far in the future you get, underneath it all, we are still human. With all our human greatness and all our human failings. Good to know, right?

While all these full length stories are battling each other for supremacy, I have lots of little projects as well. Teasers, pleasers and short-shorts. I need to write the second of three novelettes that are loosely affiliated to the novelette that was recently accepted (did that even make sense? it did in my brain). It is going to be about shifters and will be MFMM menage. Then I have the second of a two part story that is novella length. This is also a menage but it will be a MMF menage about a witch, a vampire and a shifter. I have another short I want to get out about a dominant woman as well. Not a lot out there about Dommes. More needs to be. So that will be my contribution. See how giving I am? lol There are more little projects but until I can get the ones already outlined done, I really can’t even spare the brain cells for even thinking about them.

It’s a good thing that I am able to multi-task. Because if you think my real life has stopped to let me write, you would be sadly mistaken. My real life hasn’t even slowed down. Then again, I didn’t really expect it to. Life NEVER works that way.