Addendum: MYSTERY SOLVED! Whoo-Hoo! Captain Geek is indeed a friend and does indeed get to claim me as one. In fact, he was the first ever person who could claim me as a friend and vice versa, as we met shortly after our births when I was 6 weeks old and he was first brought home from the hospital. And yes, we've been together for the following 40 years. Which really doesn't suck, if you think about it.
Interesting...I have followers. Now, I've known I have followers. That's not what's interesting. What's interesting is Captain Geek. Captain Geek, you're following me. You have even identified as a friend.
So who are you?
Let me know. I think I know. But I want to make sure. ;)
Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee ~ and hopefully let me know who Captain Geek is!
Friday, August 28, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
A Good Lesson
No matter how good the music, no matter how great it feels to be driving 85 again, no matter how high the heels, it is imprudent to miss your exit after Nephi on I15.
Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.
Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Randomness
- If you ever find yourself in Tooele (Too-IH-lah) Utah, bypass the few chain hotels. They are awfully proud of their Hampton Inn anyway. Stay at the American Inn and Suites. Don't let the motel exterior fool you. And for goodness sake, try the 7:00 pm cinnamon buns they serve in the lobby most evenings.
- Tooele is a cute little town. Maybe it's not worth a special trip but if you find yourself there for other reasons, it's not the worst place to be. Not by far.
- Carry sunblock, regardless of what the plan is. The first sunburn in 30 years (literally) sucks.
- All the years my dad taught me to drive anchor in a convoy are paying off. Driving chase is wicked cool.
- Daddy never mentioned what to do when you are anchoring a truck and trailer loaded with 700 gallons of jet fuel. Eventually, it becomes as ordinary as anchoring any other vehicle ~ but those first few miles are...interesting.
- Should you find yourself in Nephi, stay in room 238 of the Best Western. It's $20 more than the other rooms and worth every freaking penny.
- Don't expect to find much in the way of dinner after 7:00 p.m. in Nephi, Utah. Expect to find even less after 9:00.
- The closest Wal-Mart, chain drug store and McDonalds are in Payson, 21 miles away. The closest bookstore is in Provo, ~35 miles away.
- The Payson Starbucks is one of the ones that got closed after the economic crash. This made me sadder than I thought possible for this Dunkin' Donuts girl.
- Racing the helicopter from the staging area 11 miles away in Mona from the hotel three miles away is wicked cool. I swear if I had another week to get really good on the back roads, I could beat him. Now? Lithus/helicopter 2. Pobble/car 0. *sigh*
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Morning Conversation with Lithus
I may be the only one amused by us. This may be a one-time thing. Or you may start getting regular reports on our morning conversations. We'll see. For now, this morning went like this...
Lithus: I like weather.
Pobble: I like weather, too.
Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.
Lithus: I like weather.
Pobble: I like weather, too.
Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Love-Hate-Life
The hardest part of living on the road is there is so much interesting stuff going on at all times ~ except when it's deadly dull and there's not even anything on television. How do I blog about that? I mean, the crazy, toothless couple and their adult daughters (?) living in the corner rooms of the hotel/flophouse are great characters but even they get dull after a while.
The town where we're spending most of this summer is...curious. On the one hand, I hate it. It's tiny, it's boring, it's same old same old. On the other hand, it's 10 miles away from a really cool little town with funky energy and neat little shops. Plus, in our town itself, we've found Italian food, a great burger joint, Indian food and Chinese. And the best biscuit I've tasted outside of a personal kitchen. The movie theatre is large and comfy and tickets are less than eight bucks. Two cool bars and a couple neat coffee shops. Sounds as if it would be charming, which it is ~ and which it's not.
I've started getting up with Lithus in the mornings ~ or at least a little after him ~ so I'm up around 8:00 am for the first time since I had an office job. Still don't love mornings. Yet I am loving the time together before he goes to work. The other day we got to riffing on something and laughing until we had tears in our eyes. Another morning resulted in a dictionary.com search for the actual definition of the word "bit" and did bit imply small or could you have a large bit of something. (As an aside, this is an excellent example of why we married each other instead of other people ~ we both actually care about this shit) This morning was all about Afghanistan and should we still be in a war over there or not.
Saturday night we met up with a couple guys Lithus has known for years and years and years. One's from Australia. One's from New Zealand. Both are pilots. God, I love pilots. We laughed and drank and talked and debated. Solved some of the world's problems and ran screaming from others. Australians really do call their country Oz and say "mate." New Zealanders really do refer to themselves as Kiwis and hate being thought of as Australian.
My cover flats showed up with the copyedits for the new novel. The back cover write up is horrible. As Lithus put it, they didn't try very hard. The worst part is, however, that they got a whole lot of it wrong. Like the name of the town and the name of the heroine and the state the town is in...yeah. And my internet was down so I couldn't get my editor's phone number, let alone send her an email. Luckily, Crow is willing to be indispensible in all kinds of ways, including sending emails. The back cover will be fixed and all will be well. I just "probably shouldn't use the flats for promotion, what do you think?" Yeah, New York Editor, I think you're probably right.
So it's a brilliant, boring, fascinating time. More cookouts on the truck bed. More poker with the heli-crew. More afternoons, surfing the internet for something to do because dammit, I'm bored. More experiences that don't always make for good blogging but make for great life. I can live with this.
Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.
The town where we're spending most of this summer is...curious. On the one hand, I hate it. It's tiny, it's boring, it's same old same old. On the other hand, it's 10 miles away from a really cool little town with funky energy and neat little shops. Plus, in our town itself, we've found Italian food, a great burger joint, Indian food and Chinese. And the best biscuit I've tasted outside of a personal kitchen. The movie theatre is large and comfy and tickets are less than eight bucks. Two cool bars and a couple neat coffee shops. Sounds as if it would be charming, which it is ~ and which it's not.
I've started getting up with Lithus in the mornings ~ or at least a little after him ~ so I'm up around 8:00 am for the first time since I had an office job. Still don't love mornings. Yet I am loving the time together before he goes to work. The other day we got to riffing on something and laughing until we had tears in our eyes. Another morning resulted in a dictionary.com search for the actual definition of the word "bit" and did bit imply small or could you have a large bit of something. (As an aside, this is an excellent example of why we married each other instead of other people ~ we both actually care about this shit) This morning was all about Afghanistan and should we still be in a war over there or not.
Saturday night we met up with a couple guys Lithus has known for years and years and years. One's from Australia. One's from New Zealand. Both are pilots. God, I love pilots. We laughed and drank and talked and debated. Solved some of the world's problems and ran screaming from others. Australians really do call their country Oz and say "mate." New Zealanders really do refer to themselves as Kiwis and hate being thought of as Australian.
My cover flats showed up with the copyedits for the new novel. The back cover write up is horrible. As Lithus put it, they didn't try very hard. The worst part is, however, that they got a whole lot of it wrong. Like the name of the town and the name of the heroine and the state the town is in...yeah. And my internet was down so I couldn't get my editor's phone number, let alone send her an email. Luckily, Crow is willing to be indispensible in all kinds of ways, including sending emails. The back cover will be fixed and all will be well. I just "probably shouldn't use the flats for promotion, what do you think?" Yeah, New York Editor, I think you're probably right.
So it's a brilliant, boring, fascinating time. More cookouts on the truck bed. More poker with the heli-crew. More afternoons, surfing the internet for something to do because dammit, I'm bored. More experiences that don't always make for good blogging but make for great life. I can live with this.
Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Plotting GACK
I need a plot. I have great characters. I have a great setup. I just have no plot.
GACK.
Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.
GACK.
Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.
Sunday, August 09, 2009
It's Corny But...
..every now and then, I get an email from a reader that touches me. Today, I picked a winner for the latest contest I ran and she is thrilled. Thrilled. She never wins anything. She's had a crappy weekend. She never imagined she'd have a second chance at it once the original winner was announced (the original winner never got back to me so I had to give notice then choose another one). I've made her day, her weekend, possibly her month. Does this sound a little over the top? You should've read the original, unparaphrased version.
For me, this is my job. Marketing and relationship development is as important as the actual writing. I forget that it is often more than just a job. And the truth is ~ as much as I touched her, it's no more than she's touched me.
Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.
For me, this is my job. Marketing and relationship development is as important as the actual writing. I forget that it is often more than just a job. And the truth is ~ as much as I touched her, it's no more than she's touched me.
Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
One of Those Nights
Lori, over at This Just In, has a posting up about those days when it's really, really good to be you, in that moment. Her post got me thinking about several of those times and how wonderful they were. Then an amazing thing happened...
I had another one.
Last night, Lithus and Mechie were craving steak so they decided (*cough*rationalized*cough*) that it really would be cheaper in the long run if the company bought them a small hibachi rather than steak at a restaurant every time they wanted their red meat fix. Lithus called home to see if steaks sounded good to me. As I was alive, conscious and, well, me, it did only I informed him that our hotel wouldn't allow us to have a grill in the parking lot.
Had I called? Nope. Were there rules posted? Nope. But I know this kind of hotel and they aren't the kind who are going to allow the residents, er, guests, have grills in the parking lot. Or chairs. Or door decorations. Because it's that kind of a hotel and once those things start, it stops looking like a hotel and starts looking like the flophouse it kinda, sorta is ~ at least down here on our end.
We were at an impasse. Until the phone rang and it was Lithus, informing me that he had spoken with the front desk and I was correct. No grills allowed on property. But if I wanted to pour myself a libation and wander down the parking lot, past the hotel's property, we were tailgating at the other end. I opened the hotel room door and, sure enough, there they were, at the other end of the parking lot, off the hotel's property, hibachi on the back of the company truck.
What's a girl to do? I poured myself a libation, wandered down and joined them for steaks, corn on the cob and potatoes. The sun set and we were under the full moon and the stars, listening to U2 and the Dropkick Murphys, because my baby loves me.
It was one of those moments and one of those nights. So I'm going to steal from Lori: tell me. Tell me about one of your those nights. You know you've got 'em...
Those are Pobble Thoughts, with some help from Lori and you. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.
I had another one.
Last night, Lithus and Mechie were craving steak so they decided (*cough*rationalized*cough*) that it really would be cheaper in the long run if the company bought them a small hibachi rather than steak at a restaurant every time they wanted their red meat fix. Lithus called home to see if steaks sounded good to me. As I was alive, conscious and, well, me, it did only I informed him that our hotel wouldn't allow us to have a grill in the parking lot.
Had I called? Nope. Were there rules posted? Nope. But I know this kind of hotel and they aren't the kind who are going to allow the residents, er, guests, have grills in the parking lot. Or chairs. Or door decorations. Because it's that kind of a hotel and once those things start, it stops looking like a hotel and starts looking like the flophouse it kinda, sorta is ~ at least down here on our end.
We were at an impasse. Until the phone rang and it was Lithus, informing me that he had spoken with the front desk and I was correct. No grills allowed on property. But if I wanted to pour myself a libation and wander down the parking lot, past the hotel's property, we were tailgating at the other end. I opened the hotel room door and, sure enough, there they were, at the other end of the parking lot, off the hotel's property, hibachi on the back of the company truck.
What's a girl to do? I poured myself a libation, wandered down and joined them for steaks, corn on the cob and potatoes. The sun set and we were under the full moon and the stars, listening to U2 and the Dropkick Murphys, because my baby loves me.
It was one of those moments and one of those nights. So I'm going to steal from Lori: tell me. Tell me about one of your those nights. You know you've got 'em...
Those are Pobble Thoughts, with some help from Lori and you. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Whoop ~ There It Is
March 2010 ~ which is a damn site closer than it should be. Some interesting things are happening in the publishing industry so we are holding our breath that there will be a third book in this series with the same publishing house. The problem is, generally, you have to be a much bigger name than I to successfully move a series from one house to another so...no contract with my current house for another in this series, no more series. Fingers crossed. And you know ~ know ~ I will keep you posted!
Meanwhile, I'm basking in this just a little before the business end kicks back in again and wanted to share.
Those are Pobble Thoughts. That and a buck fifty will get you coffee.
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