I’m writing this on Sunday, waiting for the oldest boy to come over and watch the Superbowl with his dad.

I know I have to write a blog.

Okay, I have three ideas. One is about credibility, and why Dr. Phil still has ANY credibility after the way he exploited Britney Spears when she was hospitalized the first time. With Britney’s second hospitalization, I saw that the CBS morning show was going to interview Dr. Phil to talk about Britney’s break down and mental illness. Hello? The man lost all credibility with me with that last stunt he pulled by barging into her hospital room without her permission then talking to the media about it. I think a breech of ethics like that is a black mark against credibility. But evidently the TV station that is making money off his show disagrees. So perhaps I am wrong. Perhaps no one else cares. Perhaps what is most important is entertainment and gossip, not credibility. Maybe I shouldn’t even bring this up at all.

My second idea is to talk about defining moments in character’s lives. I’ve been thinking about this a lot because I’m at the point in my book where characters are really revealing themselves. The way I work with my characters is to throw them in scenes and see how they act. Then I try to figure out why they make the choices they make, and I come up with “defining moments” in their backstory to explain who they are. By now, I know my characters (only 300 pages into the book, LOL!). Of course, this also means that I will be revising since I know the characters better now. But frankly, all this is kinda boring, right?

Did you get the part where I’m more than 300 pages into writing the manuscript???? It’s a first draft, but still, the book is working as long as I accept that it’s working and keep going. I will do a fairly heavy revision when this draft is done, then one more edit pass, but it’s the first draft that’s usually the killer for me.

Where was I? Oh yeah, that was the second thing I was going to talk about. But like I said–boring.

But my third idea is something that has made me laugh for weeks. I saw this online and it totally cracked me up. So instead of talking about credibility or character defining moments, I thought we’d play…

CAPTION THIS!

So play along, how would you caption this tattoo? Or we can talk about credibility and characterization. I don’t think I could come up with a backstory to explain why ANYONE would tattoo a gun in their pants. But hey, maybe you can!

My first blog for today was a rant. It was a really good rant. I felt so much better after I wrote it. But, consider yourselves spared. After I scrapped that one, I was going to write a blog about how bad things happen to good people. Another really good blog, maybe I’ll post it next week. But for now, consider yourselves spared.

Now, brace yourselves, because what I am going to talk about may bore the hell out of all of you, because quite frankly it’s a topic that has been visited here a few times and most certainly all over the freakin’ blog-sphere. But I really want y’all to be completely candid with me this time around, not that you weren’t the last time, but this time I want some serious thought and detail to go into your comments today, not that you don’t always put serious thought and detail into your comments…sheesh, you know what I mean.

So:

What makes you run, not walk to your favorite blog spot? Tell me true if it’s snark. Tell me true if it’s reviewers behaving badly. Hey, even I get a kick out of Mrs.Giggles once in a while, but um, I’m not really referring to her. Do you like reading blogs where the authors get very personal, and well, a little kinky? Or how about the ones where regular rants are status quo? Do you like funny? Do you like the Kumbaya ones? How about those industrial ones, where industry info dominates? Or how about the ones where the author talks about his or her process? Or the ones where the author is candid about the ups and downs of the publishing industry? Do you like contests? And what do you like to win? Books? Vibrators or chocolate?

Are you a reader who likes to read author blogs or a writer who likes to read industry and author blogs? Why do you read blogs? Is it a chance to pour a cup of coffee and visit or a chance to snerk and laugh and shake your head at women behaving badly?

Do you care what the blog looks like? And what do you like aesthetically? What do you want to see that isn’t out there? What is the perfect blog for you? Tell me true. Enquiring minds really want to know.

Oh, and another very pressing question: Giants or the Pats?