Castle in the Clouds

So my sister and I have started working on our project. We've both done a bit of research and have each started writing. She's handling the prologue, which sets up the heroine's disfigurement and introduces the villian. I've written the first chapter from our hero's POV. Here's a small snippet from what I've completed so far. Before you read, please keep in mind that this is subject to change, un-edited, and likely full of typos. Also, if you're the delicate kind that blushes, you may find some of the language a tad bit strong. It didn’t take him long to find them. A small, spring-fed pond lay nestled amid a cluster of trees. Through the tree line beyond the pond, he could see that the last of the sun’s glorious rays had faded into bruised purples and blues. Overhead the moon shone in a sliver of silver and reflected off the rippling water of the pond where the Healer and her pet played. He caught a silhouette of the woman as she pushed herself up off t...

I think I know why traffic here is so slow. I'm not controversial. I don't post or, more importantly, argue my personal views on politics, religion, or anything else that could remotely be considered a "hot topic". I don't post anything revealing. Not about me and not about my family. I shy away from mentioning work. I avoid bad-mouthing people if I can. I rarely rant. What I do post are updates on activities concerning me, the boys, and my hubby. This, my friends, amounts to the ultimate in boring blogs. Damn, that sucks. But do I want to write entries that will stir up more than casual interest? Do I want to risk the flame wars and name-calling? Do I have the energy to not only present my views but to fight to support them? Here in blogland I'm not terribly concerned with swaying popular opinion, or defending my buying into popular opinion if that's the case. Oddly enough, in person, I'm very open. Some people might even consider me out-spoken. More ...

My kindergartener brought home a bouquet of flowers today. Not one filled with roses or lilies. Not one dotted with baby's breath or bursting with daisies. No, this lovely little bouquet is one of weeds. They were a gift from one of the little girls in my son's class. She picked these "flowers" for my cute little man and, to make sure they lived through the school day, she put them in a cute little bottle with a pretty green label. Now, I don't know if you can see the label all that well or not. On my screen its a tad bit small and a little out of focus. So, here, let me read it for you: K*Y Touch massage secret grove body massage oil On the reverse it reads: Directions: Massage all over body and discover how exciting touch can be. Great for sensual and intimate massage. Yes, a Kindergartener brought a glorious K*Y vase to school. A vase my son carried onto the bus and showed to all the ladies at daycare. Can you believe they asked him if he had gotten the bottle ...

It is okay to admit to feeling envy? Wanting what someone else has isn't an aberration in human nature. I'd say just the opposite. I'd say its normal. Perfectly normal in fact. Oh, be quiet. You know you're guilty of this particular little sin, too. Don't even try to deny it! So, here's my list of envies... 1. The stay-at-home mom who gets to spend the early years at home with her babies. 2. The mom who works and doesn't feel any guilt. 3. Stay-at-home authors, aspiring or published. 4. The friend who actually finishes his or her novel. I envy your ability to find or make the time for your writing. Those are the biggies. Those are the most frequent envies I suffer. Especially number 3. That one seems to follow me around 7 days a week. Oh sure, there are a multitude of smaller envies I feel. Like when I don't have the cash (or time, as the case may be) to stop at Starbucks and grab a Chai, but that person over there has both the time and money! Envy! Or.....

We've had a full weekend at the ole homestead. Saturday morning the boys and I got around and went to my in-laws' church for an Easter egg hunt. Because we had snow--yes, snow!--on the ground the hunt was moved indoors. It was a freakin' madhouse. I'm telling you right now there were some serious fire marshall violations going on. But, it all ended well. The boys each got a baggie full of candy, which is really all they cared about in the first place. After stopping at the grocery store on the way home to buy a carton of eggs, we made a pit-stop at the house so I could boil said eggs. Then we went to my sister-in-law's house to color eggs and have dinner. This is another one of those annual holiday traditions for us. Every year we head over to her place to do the eggs. This year was slightly different, though, because my hubby had a bowling tournament and my mother-in-law had just had surgery a few days prior and couldn't make it. So the house seemed a bit quiet...

  We had parent-teacher conferences on Wednesday. I'm happy to report they are both doing well. This is such a relief. I figured the little guy was doing just fine, but I was a bit anxious about our 3rd grader. He's managed to pull up his scores, though, and received mostly 2s (which means he earned anywhere between 89-70%). His only low scores were in spelling and writing, which wasn't really a surprise. Knowing we had parent-teacher conferences this week I started calling the neuropsychology department that did the learning disability testing on Monday. The results were in but I had to wait to get them until the doctor had a chance to finalize the report. She finally called the afternoon of the conferences. In a nutshell, he has been diagnosised with ADHD combined type. No learning disability. Believe it or not, this is great news! We can work with and around ADHD. She's not even recommending medication, which is good because the hubby and I are against mood...

I'm going to be playing with the look of the blog over the next few days. Just thought I'd warn you..