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Monday, November 21, 2005

And Now, Some Random Television Thoughts

Regarding NIP/TUCK: Enough about Christian's marriage angst and Sean's tortured soul. Bring back the Carver already!

Regarding LOST: Anyone else looking forward to Sayid getting all inquisitor-like with Ana? Anyone else not really care whether Ana survives or gets voted off the island permanently?

BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: January's only a few (long) weeks away...!

Anyone else out there think that househusbandry looks really, really good on DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES's Tom? (Man, if only he'd suddenly become a redhead...::sigh::)

And...

Jon Stewart for president. 'Nuff said.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Saturday Night? I Must Be Blogging

Loving Husband has strep throat, so the Tax Deductions and I spent all day together -- running errands, terrifying shoppers at the grocery store, renting movies and touching all the candy bars at the local Hollywood Video. I love my kids, but man, I'm exhausted! God bless stay-at-home parents; you must have a wild abundance of energy and patience. I applaud you all.

So why am I blogging instead of curled up by LH's side, fighting the good fight for covers and no germs? I've got too much on my mind.

Part of it has to do with an AMAZING conference LH and I attended on Thursday night at the New York Public Library about copyright and Google Book Search. I hope to blog about that more tomorrow, because man, this is majorly important stuff, and all serious writers should be thinking about what this issue means -- and where they stand.

A bigger part is all about the day job. I'm the copy chief and production editor for my company's external business journal. And now I'm also going to be doing developmental editing for our online sister publication. This is a huge step in my editorial career, and I'm thrilled about this opportunity. (Insert happy dance here.)

And the biggest part is that I'll be talking to an agent about Book Three this Monday at 9 am. WOOT! Here's hoping that the conversation goes well.


Book Buzz of the Day
A Girl's Guide to Vampires by Katie MacAlister. My friend Heather recommended this one, and for that I say: Smooches, Heather! This was a very fun read -- much lighter tone than Laurell Hamilton's Anita Blake series, and very sexy. I'm also in the middle of Bloodsucking Fiends by Christopher Moore. And let me tell you, the man's a bloody genius. Really. I think I'm going to have to buy every book he's ever published. (Again, major smooches to Heather for the recommendation!)

Friday, November 04, 2005

Fill In The Blank: Ham, BLANK and Eggs

Okay, someone out there, please explain to me why I'm getting a zillion spam messages in the comments sections of old posts, and what I can do to prevent such spam.

ARGH.

Anyway.

For the past week, I've been working on my agent query letter and my synopsis for Book Three. Thanks to the lovely folks at Backspace, I now have a letter that (hopefully) will capture agent attention. And hold it hostage. You know, in the good way. As for the synopsis, all I can say is that synopses in general are evil (they bore you to death, and if that's not a literary crime, I don't know what is). I have something that's different, more of a Key Points than anything else. Who knows? Maybe this will work. We'll see.

I've also been doing research...on dancers. You know, the ones who take off their clothes for a living. Why? My main character, while on the lam, pulls a stint in such a club. Not a juice club, for those who understand the reference. So I've been doing a lot of reading, mostly of really poorly written books by former dancers. I've also been taping HBO's G-String Divas. Holy cow -- that's DANCING? Eek! Someone should tell Patrick Swayze that he needed to put more of the "dirty" in Dirty Dancing. At one point, I'll have to post about my Lessons Learned While Doing Research. It's been...eye-opening. And to top it off, Loving Husband and I will be visiting such a non-juice bar this weekend. He's happy to help me with the research, but he's drawing the line on tipping the dancers. "Some things," he says, "I just can't do. Not even in the name of research." God bless that man of mine. :-)

Back to researching the fabled VIP room...

Jackie's Book Buzz of the Day
The Wheel of Time, Book 11: Knife of Dreams by Robert Jordan. In something like the millionth book in the series, Jordan is finally starting to close some storylines that have been open since Book 2. Look at that, kids; perhaps the Last Battle really is going to happen. I've heard that Book 12 is supposed to be the last book in the series. Lord, I hope so. I really enjoyed the first few books in WoT, but starting around Book 5, Jordan stopped pretending to end story arcs by the close of the book. With something like a thousand characters (if I'm exaggerating, it's just barely), it's almost impossible to know who the hell he's referring to a good chunk of the time. Anyway, I'm in it for the duration -- I have to see this thing to the end.