Lynn Raye Harris

Are you one of those people who get up in the middle of the night and head out shopping on Black Friday? I have to admit I’ve never done it. I used to work retail, though thankfully we didn’t open until 8am on Black Friday. It was a chain jewelry store, and we all had to be there at 7:30 to put the jewelry in the cases. And then we all, every last one of us, worked from open to close (which was 10PM). That’s MORE than 12 hours. When you factor in getting dressed, driving to work, driving home, and unwinding before hitting the sack, it was a very, very long day.

My boss, who wasn’t all that much older than I was, would get these huge swollen ankles as the day went on. And then he worked open to close every single day from Black Friday to Christmas Eve. His kids cried because Daddy wasn’t home. His wife had to keep the home fires burning alone — she had to do all the decorating, the shopping, the socializing, the kids’ parties, etc. It’s a wonder the man never had a heart attack. But he had to do it. It was his job, he was the breadwinner, and retail jobs aren’t exactly known for their humanitarianism. Retailers don’t care how hard they work you, or how many employees they go through. By and large.

My store didn’t, nor did the one I worked for before them. I’m soooo glad I gave that life up and did other things. I may consider getting up early on Friday to go to the mall (though I’ve always been reluctant because I know what it looks like from the opposite side of the counter), but I’d never again want to have to be there.

So please remember, if you go and the lines are huge, try to have some sympathy for the sales people. It’s not the most wonderful job in the world, and it most certainly isn’t friendly to anyone over thirty. The person waiting on you may just be more weary than you can imagine, and yet he or she has to smile and be polite anyway. And will probably have to do it for days on end without a day off.

Do you go shopping on Black Friday? Are the lines bad? Are the deals really worth it? What’s parking like? (Can you tell I’m thinking about it?) What’s the best deal you ever got?

In just a few days, it’ll be time for turkey and stuffing and all the good things about a holiday dedicated to eating! I’m looking forward to it. This year, I’m not cooking (much as I enjoy cooking). We’re going to the in-laws. For years now, I’ve made a particular stuffing that everyone always asks for. My MIL did not ask me to make it, and my hubby is kind of beside himself at the prospect of not having it I think. (There’s always Christmas, honey.)

I’m pretty sure, now that I think about it, that this is only the second Thanksgiving we will have ever spent with the in-laws. So many years of military moves and living in vastly different places meant we never got together before. We had a couple of unofficial Thanksgivings, where we celebrated a week or two early because we happened to be together. Last year, they came here. This year, we’re going to their place, though it’s about a 9 hour drive. Since I’ve never actually spent the holiday with them in their home, I don’t really know what their traditions are.

We always had the Macy’s parade on, but I’m pretty sure they don’t do this because Hubby frowns every year when I want to listen to it while I cook. Maybe they watch football — which will, I must admit, not thrill me. But I’ll have books and my laptop, so I’ll find something to do if the MIL doesn’t need help in the kitchen.

What are your traditions? Do you like being the one who cooks? (I do — see the Food Snob post about Velveeta and you’ll know I like being in control of the ingredients.) Or do you prefer to let someone else do the cooking? Ever gone to a restaurant instead? (We did once; it was okay, but I like the smells in my house and the leftovers.)

I have a cat who would most certainly do this if I had a Roomba. OMG, I laughed so hard. Hope you enjoy too!

This one is for the hubby. Thank goodness he has a hobby while I write!

I’m slogging along in the WIP, so unfortunately can’t think of a single thing to talk about today. I have to get this proposal done ASAP. And I’m second guessing myself, of course. I always do this. You’d think I’d know this is the tough part, and to soldier through, but I don’t want to face the rewrites later. I’m such a baby.

How’s your day going?

Well, I got nothing interesting today. Yesterday, I went to Costco. How’s that for fascinating? No overly perfumed people this time. But I did cut myself on a Christmas display. And had to go searching through the store for a napkin to stop the bleeding. I was looking at a mantel display thingie, and trying to see what the bottom was, when one of the blasted ornaments sliced the back of my finger.

Aside from that, I meandered the aisles. Of course I was supposed to be home writing! But I’d had to go to the Post Office to mail my contracts, so I decided I needed to make a wine run. Which turned into a meander through the aisles run.

I love the food section. I can spend a lot of time looking at cheese and various other nifty gourmet things. And yes, going back to Monday’s Velveeta blog, you CAN buy imported French cheese for what you pay for Velveeta. Is that wrong or what?! I rarely buy these things though because you have to buy in bulk most of the time. Do I really need a 3 pound hunk of imported parmesiano-reggiano? What about those 30 lb sacks of potatoes?!

Anyway, after Costco, I came home. Hubby arrived shortly thereafter and I talked him into taking me for dinner. We went to a local restaurant that serves Cajun food. And the owner remembered me as an author and said that the waiter who served us last time has been asking if I’d come back yet. Who knew that being a romance novelist could be so exciting? He wants to do a book launch party in the restaurant. Why not? Jambalaya is a take off on paella, so perhaps I can tie the Spanish theme in somewhere.

That was my seriously exciting day. How did yours go? What do you think of book launch parties? Ever been to one? I hadn’t actually planned one since Harlequin does such fabulous promo for the lines, but maybe it’d be fun….

To the people who keep typing some variation of “how to kill my spouse” into their search engines and clicking over here, there is NO WAY to kill your spouse and get away with it. It’s wrong, it’s immoral and illegal. Get a divorce. Go to counseling. But do NOT think you’re going to kill your spouse and get away with it.

This is the post that’s popping up in the search engines. It was a tongue in cheek statement that a writer can put anyone she is mad at in a book (as a character, duh) and then do what she wants to them. It’s not a treatise on how to get away with murder.

What’s on your mind today? If you blog, what’s the top search phrase (or the weirdest) that brings people visiting?

Some people think I’m a food snob. I don’t know why that is. I just like food without mystery ingredients. What’s so wrong with that? The fresher, the better.

But then, on Friday, I was shopping and realized something. Something that indicated to me that I might just be a teensy bit of a food snob after all. I had NO clue where to find Velveeta cheese. I wanted to make that cheese dip that’s so popular at parties, you see, because I was hosting a chapter board meeting at my house on Sunday. And I like that dip, but I’ve never made it, so there I was searching.

Not. A. Clue.

And I was too stubborn to stop and ask. (Or maybe I didn’t want anyone to know what I was looking for. I had visions of Tony Bourdain going all Invasion of the Body Snatchers on me if he saw the stuff in my cart.) I figured out pretty quick that it wasn’t refrigerated. And that’s just wrong! What’s in that stuff anyway?

So I wandered down to the chips. Nope, not there. I wandered back to the canned tomatoes (you know, because you pair it with Rotel). Nope, not there either.

I wandered past the macaroni and cheese. I never look at this stuff because I don’t eat it. But before you think I’m an unrepetant snoot, the first meal I ever learned to cook, when I was about eight yrs old, was boxed macaroni and cheese. Loved the stuff! And I’ve made plenty of Hamburger Helper back in the day. Oh yes, used to go to Sam’s Club and buy the stuff in bulk.

But somewhere along the way, I changed my stripes.

While I was searching for Velveeta, I remembered Government Cheese. Remember that? I think it was the gov’t version of Velveeta, and they used to give it away. My parents used to get it, and we put it on crackers and who knows what else. Probably made grilled cheese sandwiches with it.

Finally, I arrived at the Velveeta. It sort of has it’s own place in the store! It was down the aisle from the mac & cheese, and it comes in varieties now. Pepper Jack? That looked kind of good.

But then I saw the price. Seriously, cheese* that the gov’t used to give away for free costs as much as gourmet cheese from France?! Mon Dieu! Somewhere, Julia Child is rolling in her grave. After deliberating, I chose the smaller package, 2% milk version. And forked over enough money for it to buy a hunk of brie.

What food do you consider funky? Do you use Velveeta? Remember free gov’t cheese? And yes, I made the dip — and it was good! But now that I’ve gone searching for how the stuff is made, I don’t think I’ll be buying it very often…

*Actually, it’s a “cheese product.” Kraft was sued for calling it cheese because real cheese has 51% cheese or more. Velveeta does not. They cook it with a lot of whey, and then it congeals into the stuff we know as Velveeta. And it did look like a shiny congealed mass of something yellow to me.

Join me over at Romance Writers on the Journey! Keli Gwyn asks me about The Call, how my life has changed since, and what my advice to writers is for how to prepare for being published. Come on over and ask me a question or make a comment! You’ll be entered for a chance to win a seriously cool bookmark!

Come keep me company.

Hey, all I can say is I’m glad I’ve got a Mac. What would happen if The Matrix ran on Windows….? Here’s the answer.

Tomorrow, guest blog over at Romance Writers on the Journey — it’s a special Saturday edition! Come see what Keli asked me, and what I said!

I have more trouble with beginnings than anything else. I can rewrite the beginning of a book ten times. I’m on the third rewrite of the beginning of the current WIP. I’m actually happy with it (unless my editor tells me otherwise). But I realized that chapter 2 was having a problem. I knew this because I was finding excuses to do other things — anything but look at this chapter!

Finally, as I forced myself to reread in order to get to where I’d left off, the solution hit me. Bear in mind I’d reread this stuff every day before slogging forward and getting stuck again. The solution doesn’t always hit you the first time. Or the fiftieth. Sometimes, you just have to wait for that aha moment to hit. You can’t force it.

What was the problem? The heroine was too passive. Yes, Presents heroes are alpha males and they like to do a lot of commanding. But my heroine was accepting the commands just a little too easily. She was fighting inside, but she wasn’t challenging the hero on the outside. Not cool. Once I realized how she needed to respond, the chapter started to fall together.

It could change again, but now I know my heroine needs to step up to the plate. That was the major problem.

How do you approach writing challenges? Do you have trouble with beginnings? Middles? Ends? Or something different? Let’s discuss writing!