I found this in my organizational/paper sorting/filing experience last week (and yes, no lie, I burned up the motor in my heavy-duty paper shredder). It’s now posted on my bulletin board.

Ten Commandments of Good Writing
by Patricial Lorenz

I. Thou shalt write the way thou talks
II. Your opening sentence shall hook the readers
III. Thou shalt show, not tell, with dialogue and scenes
IV. Thou shalt sticketh to the point
V. Thou shalt know thy audience
VI. Thou shalt use all thy senses in writing
VII. Thou shalt create vivid scenes
VIII. Thou shalt rewrite until thy work is a tight masterpiece
IX. Thou shalt let imagination and honesty work magic
X. Thou shalt use plenty of resources

…just how much I LOVE to read!! I spent Saturday cleaning and organizing my office, blowing the decks, and vaccuming the house. Saturday evening Girl and the DH took off for the dirt track races. The house was mine! My time was mine!

I could go shopping.

I could go see Pirates III.

I could go out to eat!

I could…READ!

I tuned into my favorite jazz radio station (which everyone else in this house loathes), lit a couple of nice candles, poured a glass of wine and planted my butt on the couch.:love2:

It was wonderful! And Sunday I just did more of the same (er, foregoing the radio statio and the wine:mrgreen:).

What about you? Read any good books lately? Did something you haven’t had time to do in a while and remembered how much you enjoyed it? (Hey! Keep it clean!!)

Did you hear that horrible sound? It’s just me screaming. I am so effing sick of reading about/hearing about– oh, hell no, I’m not even typing the name — she-who-shall-remain-nameles-waste-of-space-serving-time-in-jail-for-DUI’s. Coverage comes on the radio — I change it. Article shows up on my computer screen — I ignore it. For the life of me, I can’t understand why ANYONE gives a rat’s ass? Why does the media keep feeding this? No, I’m not jealous of either looks or money. I’m simply disgusted.

Jen 0 - Squirrels 2.

They’ve won.

A couple of years ago I brought a squirrel-proof bird feeder. Uh-huh. It took them about two-weeks to figure out how to brace their back feet on the pole and reach up and eat without their weight closing the hopper. One point to them.

Yesterday I finally tossed in the towel and gave them the other point and the win. I bought corn and put it into an empty feeder in the hopes that if they have their own corn, they’ll leave the bird seed alone. :wallbash:

I am attempting something very frightening, downright scary, something that will push me to my limits…I’m determined to organize the piles of paperwork that clutter my house. I keep telling myself organization is a skill and as such can be learned. I went to the office supply store yesterday and bought bankers boxes (they make them now in purple and bright blue:cooldance:) and file folders. The problem is, I’m not very good at figuring out the best way to set things up. It’s making my head hurt just to think about it. But I will press on. I will conquer this mountain…literally, of paperwork.

I love reading the Strange But True newsbits that crop up on my computer.

How about this? A judge has ordered a Canadian man not to have a girlfriend for three years because he has a dependant personlity disorder. Uh…yeah, I’m guessing that guy’s really going to adhere to that.:doh:

Night before last was a bad night at Chez LaBrecque if you happened to be a piece of electronic equipment. Girl somehow, I still haven’t quite figured out exactly what happened, managed to smash in the front of her cell phone with a recliner downstairs rendering it useless.:doh: It’s insured but she’ll have to wait until I can haul it to Nextel — probably sometime next week.

That same evening something about the dog knocked her off-balance when she was letting the dog in the back door because it thundered outside and said dog freaks during thunder. Upshot is Girl fell against 55″ Mitsubishi big-screen and some balancer speaker on the top of the t.v. crashed to the ground. The big-screen is gone. Totally. Sound but no picture. We’d actually had a t.v. guy out last year who said it’s on its last legs. It’s old. Techno-freak that he is, the DH bought it 14 years ago when big screens first came on the scene. And the speaker that crashed to the ground? It smashed the small, portable dvd player. The DH is devestated, but I don’t watch t.v. so I don’t particularly care.

Girl’s computer is on the fritz. Regardless, she already lost it for the summer. Despite a heads-up the last month of school she dragged home a “B” on the report card. It may sound harsh, but she’s fully capable of an “A”. Bye-bye computer for the summer.:wave:

No computer. No cell phone. No t.v.

It was GREAT yesterday!! Girl practiced basketball, cleaned up the kitchen, put away her laundry, played with some neighbor kids, baked cookies and really got into her summer reading book.

The death of technology in this house has been a beautiful thing.:thumbsup:

I had previously posted my September Harlequin NASCAR cover. I was a little disappointed simply because the guy on the cover didn’t fit the guy in the story.

Yesterday, I got an email that my final cover is a different cover. I am ecstatic.:cooldance: THIS cover nails it! Both of them are exactly who they are in the story. Here it is, my gorgeous cover for my September Harlequin NASCAR book:

Whaddaya think?