For the first time in quite awhile, I’m a wee bit stumped on what to chat about today. I have a swirl of thoughts in my head but my brain is not sparking at the moment. I feel kind of overloaded, so, I’m going to ramble.

Since returning from National last month, I have been going nonstop with everything else except writing my book. When I am writing, in that zone, that place where I see the entire story play out and I cannot write it fast enough everything is set aside. Everything. The dust collects. The bills are ignored, the piles in my office multiply, my ass gets wider, and my family eats pizza five nights a week.

But I have had more petty drama and BS buzzing around me the last couple of weeks then I’ve had all year combined! I’m ready to take someone’s head off! Between wedding planning, chapter business, the kids, the world of publishing, and all of the other demands slithering out of the woodwork, I’m about to go seriously medieval on the next person who crosses me. And I have a very long fuse. Well, with most things.

So, to cope, I went digest on all of my group loops. I have once again put the family on notice. I’m saying, no to everyone and everything. I paid the bills, cleaned the office, had the housekeeper do a top to bottom inside out job on the house the other day. I’m crossing my fingers that I did actually put out all the raging fires, and am now, finally, ready to dig in and write the story that keeps bugging me.

But, we have a family friend who is dying of cancer. I went to say goodbye to her Wednesday. I could not ,not go. I didn’t not want to go. I was so glad I did. I have my closure now, and know that when she passes I did right by her, and by me. My youngest son started college a couple of weeks ago, he needs my guidance right now. He’s trying so very hard to make all of the right decisions, and he and I have always been close. I feel closer to him now more than ever. My daughter and her fiancé put an offer on a house earlier this week. We had to go see it. We had to be there when the realtor came with the paperwork. We had to speak with the broker doing their loan, and go over every line in the sales contract. Wedding invitations went out this week. A week late because the printer kept delaying us. He has no idea how close his children came to being fatherless.

My oldest daughter spent two days in the hospital earlier this week due to a kidney stone. Of course I was there. I was going to spend the night with her because she is such a wuss. But the hospital was adamant. Out by 8 p.m. On one hand I was relieved, I so did not want to sleep in a chair, but on the other hand I worried about my daughter being alone and afraid in the hospital. I worried all night and found it difficult to concentrate on anything.

The first page proofs of TORMENT arrived Wednesday. They have to be in New York on the 8th. I have a signing tomorrow. I have a book to finish reading and blurb by the 6th, but thank god it’s a good book and I don’t have to fib.

And my husband wants to know why I smoke. Okay, actually I quit after National, but I tell ya, I want one. Bad.

I had bunko at my house last night. I had cancelled because of deadlines in June, so I had to have it this month. I could not wait for everyone to leave so that I could get back to my story. I have heart Post It notes stuck all around my computer screen reminding me off all of the stuff I have to take care of tomorrow. I promised my office manager last week I would call her and catch up on business, forgot, then promised her again this week and forgot again. I wonder if she has disowned me. Thank god for her though, if she didn’t do what she does, I’d be royally screwed!

So, while I thought I had cleared the way for writing, I guess life will keep coming at me and I’ll just have to deal with it as it happens and hopefully not commit a felony in the process. Of course, I knew this, but talking about it puts it back into perspective for me. Writing is my job, a job I love, but it’s just part of my life, not all of it.

Okay, so now that I have dumped on you all, I have to say, I feel better. Thanks.
So, I know what I’m doing this Labor Day holiday, what about you? Staying close to home, catching up on work or play or just chilling out?

Oh, and for all of you ladies and gents in Gustav’s path, my prayers are with you. I hope that mo’ fo’ peters out in the gulf.

Today I planned to post pictures from my new office. I even cleaned it this morning (somewhat), took a bunch of pictures, and figured out how to upload them to my iMac (very easy, wow!) What I can’t seem to do is resize them. All the pictures are huge and too big to upload into wordpress. And they would take forever to load on your computer, too. I don’t have a program on my Mac that is a photo editor. iPhoto doesn’t seem to want to resize anything for me (though I can edit the photos.) So I figured out who to export and thought that in Preview I could resize . . . nope. The only way I would be able to do this is to email the photos to myself (which will probably crash my email–see, I deleted them off the camera already) and bring them up on my husband’s PC and adjust them in photoshop, then write my blog there. But it would take me an hour at least, and I need to finish this book (SUDDEN DEATH.) They are revisions and I have the last 50+ pages to edit and a couple scenes to write and I want everything done by tomorrow. So we’re going to have to wait until next week for pics of my office . . . I’ll take new pictures on Monday after my fabulous housekeepers come in and make my office shine.

So I don’t have a blog topic for today.

I will share the fact that I still write better and faster when I’m not sitting here in my beautiful, nearly complete office. I don’t know why that is. I think it’s mental. No surprise there…I’m a bit of a mental case sometimes! I can write here, but it takes longer. Still, that’s better than last month when I COULDN’T write a word in this office. Now that my bookshelves are in, my books are in them, and I have some furniture and it feels like an office, I’m getting there.

But I did go to Starbucks last night because I really, really needed to get a lot of work done. And I may have to escape tonight as well. I really want to get this book done. I have another to write . . . and the littlest Brennan who starts Pre-K (4 year old class) on Tuesday is off for the next two days. I have Go, Diego, Go playing in the background (I have a tv in my office) and while I can blog, read emails, and even write up a blurb or read to the sound of television, I have a hard time writing the actual story. For that, I prefer rock. Hard rock. Loud

Oh, funny story. Yesterday was Brennan #5′s last day at preschool before the changing of the classrooms. If I’m late to the school, I have to traipse into the office, get them tardy slips, then walk them to opposite ends of the school (Kindergarden and 2nd grade.) I did NOT want to be late, and it was nearing the point of no return. I told all of them to get into the car (they did) and I finished up the lunches, grabbed my purse and ran out. We were halfway to the school when #4 said, “Number Five isn’t wearing any pants.”

Grrr! He was still in his pajama top, no bottoms because he doesn’t like wearing them to bed. Just a Mickey Mouse top and Buzz Lightyear underwear.

Fortunately, he had a change of clothes in his cubby at school and I dressed him there. He also had an extra pair of shoes in the car . . . I was lucky. Very lucky.

Next week starts sports. I’m doing sports through the school primarily because all the practices are after school, at school, and I don’t have to drive the kids everywhere. Brennan #1, in high school, already started in the summer, and her first volleyball game is tomorrow at 5. I hope to at least make half of it, but the little kids (4, 5, 7) have a hard time sitting through a full game. But we’re going to try. Brennan #2, junior high, starts volleyball next week. It was supposed to be this week, but the coach had a family emergency. Brennan #3–my smart and smart ass 7 year old son–wants to play golf. They have a special program at the school and I tried to get him into soccer or basketball, but he picked golf and he’s adamant about it. The thing is . . . I think he might be pretty good. He has incredible hand-eye coordination (video games) and he has patience. Brennan #4 is starting soccer. And #5 is too young. Thank God. Because I don’t know if I can handle any more! Next year . . . well, I’ll worry about that then. Because #5 is, out of all the kids, the one who NEEDS to be playing sports. He’s active and aggressive and needs to get rid of that energy.

One good thing about the sports program because it’s at the school, there’s three days a week I don’t have to jump up right before 3 to get the kids. They practice from 3:15-4:30 and that means I’ll have more writing time. Except for games, of course, which I don’t want to miss.

What does this have to do with writing? Hmmm, nothing, really, except time management. I can juggle family and writing pretty well . . . but don’t throw anything else at me or I’ll probably scream. Like my inability to post pictures of my office here. Next week. Promise.

Do you ever read a series of books, all in one weekend? Most of us don’t do that. And if you picked a series like, say, JD Robb’s series, you would be in big trouble, because there are like 49 kajillion of them. Or if you picked Stephenie Meyer’s series, those “Vampire” books, you might be struggling, too, because they are huge.

My daughter went to a dance convention last week, and it featured four dancers from the SYTYCD top 20. Those four just HAPPENED to be Utahns. We grow ‘em talented here in Utah. But at any rate, my daughter’s best friend was telling me that she met one of the dancers (a male) down at a studio where she was learning a solo, and they bonded because they were BOTH reading the Stephenie Meyer books.

“Yeah, and you probably BOTH want to be with Edward, too,” quipped my smart-ass daughter. Yeah, it’s the dance world. They get used to that early.

My daughter was telling me who men in the dance industry were, early in her life. “That’s Dave Dancer and his partner Tim Tango,” she would say around age seven, without a moment’s hesitation. (The names have been changed to protect the talented. We don’t really care which way they swing as long as they have rhythm.)

If you don’t know who Edward is, or Stephenie Meyer, climb out of that cave and check out her Web site. She is America’s answer to JK Rowling, and in fact, there is currently a little controversy because the latest Harry Potter movie has been delayed. Some believe it is to avoid coming out at the same time as the movie based on Meyer’s characters, Twilight.

I suppose that is possible. Why on earth would ANYONE want those movies coming out against each other? Sounds dumb to me. I THINK that one of the former HP cast members stars as Edward. Help me fans of Meyer. Am I right? At any rate, even though Stephenie Meyer hardly needs my help, go check out the trailer to the movie. It is TRES cool, and gave me the creeps, which means it is working.

So back to my point. Have you ever tried to read a series in a weekend? There are four Twilight books. Forty-nine kajillion Eve and Rourke books. And, um, THREE Jenny T. Partridge books. How about that? Have you ever tried to read THOSE in a weekend? Well, some people have.

This week alone, I received FIVE emails from readers telling me they read ALL three books over the weekend. Quite frankly, I credit all of this to a very ardent bookseller at a B&N around the Philly area. She is awesome, and I KNOW she is plugging those books. I know, I know, my FIVE emails are piddly. Stephenie Meyer probably gets 5,000 a week.

But it warmed my heart to know that people embraced Jenny. I LOVE Jenny. In a lot of ways, Jenny is me. Silly, funny, a little eccentric, and terminally poor. In a lot of ways, of course, Jenny is NOT me. While I danced through college, and continue to appreciate the art, I no longer engage in it. I am still in touch with the world, of course, through Dancing Daughter and the different studios I work for. And dance teachers are still pretty much all crazy. Except her new teacher and studio owner, who is eccentric, and lovable and who LOSES MORE PHONES than Jenny. Hard to believe, I know.

There were many hard feelings as we left our last dance studio. It felt somewhat like a divorce. People were saying nasty things, and texting nasty messages. Backbiting and angry words were spoken. And that was from the MOMS!

I put it behind me, because I know we made the right choice. The new dance teacher and studio owner may be eccentric and like Jenny, but she is also business savvy, and smart and kind, and she KNOWS how to surround herself with the right people.

Again, I have digressed and rambled, haven’t I?

Oh well. That’s what Jenny is known for, and frankly, as I admitted, there is a LOT of me in Jenny.

Writing a series is a lot different from writing a standalone, and I have loved the experience. Unfortunately, when you write a series, you get attached to the characters. And you don’t want them to stop having adventures. At least I don’t. And a few of my readers (five this week. Did you read that?) don’t, either.

And you know what? That is what keeps you going. That is why we write.

If you are a writer, WHY do you write? And if not, why do you read?

A while back, my husband and I went to Wendy’s for a Frostie. It was a hot evening, and we just wanted to sit and chat.

We got our frosties (or is it spelled frostys?), we both had chocolate and vanilla, and once we got our ice cream, we chose a high table with three chairs. The two of us sat across from each other, with a chair between us. We were talking away about whatever…our conversations run between the every day stuff of kids, work, the house, bills, to the weird stuff I could never explain.

In my peripheral vision, I see the Wendy’s employee carrying a tray heading our way. My husband’s back is to her so he doesn’t see her yet. Some part of my brain is thinking, “Hmm, woman over thirty working at Wendy’s. Empty nest? Divorce? Victim of downsizing? Second job? It’s just a small part of my brain doing a character profile.

Then the woman shocks me. She walks right up to our table, plants her butt in the third chair and drops the tray down on the table. She says something like, “I need a break from my boss looking over my shoulder.”

My husband and I were speechless. I just had no frame of reference to grasp that the Wendy’s employee had suddenly decided to join us.

I’ve handled some weird situations, and in hind sight, I know how I’d handle this now. But then—SPEECHLESS. My husband too.

Evidently, she realized that we just weren’t that friendly, so she got up and left, and sat down at ANOTHER table.

Okay, now I know why she’s working at Wendy’s. The woman clearly doesn’t understand the concept of boundaries.

This is such a little thing. We certainly didn’t feel threatened and no real harm was done. But I was annoyed. It just felt like a weird kind of invasion.

In other, nicer restaurants, a trend I’ve noticed lately is for the manager to come over and strike up a conversation with the customers regardless if they customers seem to be deep in conversation. This happened to us on Valentine’s Day. We watched the manager do this over and over, then zero in on our table. A simple, “How is your meal this evening?” would be fine, but he’s doing the buddy routine, going on and on, even trying for humor.

So I’m just wondering, does anyone else find this behavior annoying? Intrusive?

It is very rare that an article has such an impact on me that it stays with me for more than a few minutes, much less the entire day, but when I read this yesterday, I sat for a long time as a maelstrom of emotions, thoughts and feelings swirled around inside of my head, heart and soul. Please cut and paste or click on the link below, read it, then come back here and tell me what your gut reaction was to this article, and we’ll start a conversation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/fashion/02love.html?_r=1&emc=eta1&oref=slogin