Lynn Raye Harris

Did you decorate for Halloween? I have two pumpkins, uncarved. I bought candy. I think that’s good enough. What about this place, hmm? It’s in West Virginia. There are over 3000 pumpkins, and a group of volunteers carves them (ya think?). You can read more about it here.

When I was a kid, I used to look forward to Halloween so much. I didn’t live in a suburb, but in the country. My mom had to pile us into the car and take us driving around the countryside for candy. These days, kids have such safe choices — neighborhoods banding together, malls, churches, etc, that hold Trick or Treat for kids. I think that’s great.

Indeed, Halloween has turned into its own season now. The decorations, parties, greeting cards, etc. It goes on and on. When I was a kid, costumes were chintzy — K-Mart or Wal-Mart things with those horrible plastic masks that you couldn’t see through or breathe out of. I can’t remember any of the costumes I had. I do remember one I threw together though.

I wanted to be Samantha from Bewitched so much. My mother had this flowing black coat that made me think of Samantha’s coat. I borrowed the coat, and a blonde wig (not that I wasn’t blonde already, but my hair didn’t look like Sam’s). I think I wore a pair of my mother’s shoes (they were too big, naturally). That was my costume, LOL. I imagine I looked seriously odd, but I was happy.

What was your best costume ever? Will you be dressing up for Halloween today? What was your favorite Halloween candy? I loved candy corn, though I can’t stand the stuff now.

As expected, my plan to talk about Twitter just sort of evaporated. Events of the weekend overtook me. Namely, my hubby’s obsession with the World Series. May I just say I do not care? Oh, I do actually enjoy it a teeny bit when it’s the LAST game. But this was game three. Not pivotal so far as I’m concerned.

And yet the man had to watch it. The game was rain delayed, which meant it started late. And then it finished really late. Probably 1 AM Central. I don’t know because I went to bed. Hubby stayed up for the whole thing. (Though tonight he decided to go play on the computer instead of finishing Game 4 — odd, hmm?)

I have to admit, however, that I do find an almost 46 yr old pitcher too cool for words. Jamie Moyer of the Philadelphia Phillies. This is his first World Series, which I find fascinating given his record with the Majors, and he’s a lefty. THAT’S what interests me about baseball. Human drama.

That’s probably why I love baseball movies but don’t much care for baseball itself. Baseball movies have so much drama, don’t they? Bull Durham is my favorite, probably followed by The Rookie. I also love For the Love of the Game and The Natural. A League of Their Own is pretty cool too. I am not so much a Field of Dreams fan, however.

Is it just me, or is this World Series stuff mostly a Mars thing? Because, aside from Jamie Moyer, I just don’t get it. I’d rather watch paint dry. I’d rather watch paint dry than watch most sports, come to think of it. I get excited when the stakes are HIGH. Last year’s Superbowl? Too cool. Loved it. I suppose, knowing me, if the Phillies get within true striking distance, I’ll get excited because I want the ancient (by sports standards) guy to win.

So, opinions about sports? About the World Series? Football? (Please take a moment to think of me tonight; Hubby is having a Monday Night Football party. I’m sure I’ll eat the food, say “rah rah” and disappear.)

Tomorrow is the drawing for the Gift Card!! Don’t forget to signup for my newsletter for a chance to win! (See sidebar.)

Today, I feel the need to unplug from the computer for a while. Oh, I do not kid myself this will be a total unplug from sun up to sun down. I know me.

But I’m feeling a bit too much like I’ve got too many plugs draining power, you know? And I need to write this book.

So I’m going to make a very concerted effort to be somewhere else with my Alphie, or the laptop in a place where I have to pay for Internet (and therefore won’t). Once I reach my goal, I’ll be back to see what y’all have been up to!

Do you ever feel the need to unplug? Are you successful at it, or do you still manage to let the energy be drained away as you try to keep too many things going at once?

Monday: The beauties of Twitter. Unless I change my mind.

Oops, didn’t get around to writing a new post until now. The anniversary graphic, while nice, is no longer relevant. We did have a nice time, though. Nice dinner out the first day, home cooked meal at Mom’s house the next. Pleasant times.

Finally, it’s starting to cool down a bit in Alabama. There’s a Fall nip to the air in the early mornings. I like that. You can still wear shorts or capris during the day, though. I like Fall. When I lived in Hawaii, I loved the weather. Summer all the time. But I realized when I moved that I did miss the seasons. I could do without Winter, of course. But Fall has that feeling of new beginnings, doesn’t it? Maybe it’s conditioned into us from the school years, but Fall is when you embark on something new. More so, I think, than New Year’s.

I love fresh start feelings. I think of new projects, or get into the mood to revitalize old projects. I have a new manuscript planned, and I’m having fun thinking about it. And yes, this pantser is trying very hard to write a synopsis and character backgrounds FIRST. It’s tough, but I think it’ll make the writing easier. But I won’t be committed to a definite path, so I can still change things as I write.

Any fresh starts for you this Fall? Busy weekends? Anniversaries?

Today is my anniversary! Not saying how many years, but it’s more than I can believe. When you spend enough time with a person, you get to a point where you’re amazed it worked out and positive you couldn’t live without each other.

Tomorrow is our anniversary too. We were married in Germany, so one day was the Burgermeister wedding, where we had to get married in the town hall, and the next was the church wedding for family and friends.

And we’re going to spend the day with both sets of parents. Kind of cool since we are all quite a bit older than we were then…..

Do you get a lot of it? Because I don’t seem to lately. I go to bed at a reasonable hour (sort of) and then I lay awake thinking about what I need to do, what I want to do, and what is going to happen. Not a lot of fun to be tired and have your mind race.

When morning rolls around, the hubby gets up for work. And I can’t help but get up with him. Right now, his parents are visiting. And there’s a whole relationship with coffee that I thought I understood but apparently don’t. I love my coffee in the morning, don’t get me wrong.

But my FIL is SO worried about it, like I’m going to oversleep and he will have to sit there without it for hours on end, that I make sure I get up and put a pot on. I just can’t listen to the endless questions every night — “Will you make coffee in the morning?” or “Is there going to be coffee in the morning?” or “Are you making coffee?”

As IF.

So, even if I haven’t slept well, I have to get up and make the coffee. Add in the stress of revisions, submissions, and waiting for news and you have an insomniac writer. Guess I could work on the next book idea…..

Do you have trouble sleeping? What do you do for it? Do you have a crazy FIL who obsesses about coffee? Let’s talk. Just wake me up if I’m dozing….

There is a sense when you’ve turned in a book that everything is about to fall apart. Or at least that’s how I feel. I know this is normal. All my writer friends tell me so. Published authors still get worried about what their editor will think when the manuscript is turned in. (It goes without saying that unpublished writers are anxious when they send out books!)

Anxiety: A state of uneasiness and apprehension, as about future uncertainties.

This is my state today. I’m in that no man’s land between having turned in the book, waiting for the response, wondering whether to work on something else, and just thinking I ought to climb into bed and pull the covers over my head.

Anxiety comes with symptoms, among them headaches, nausea, insomnia, trembling, pacing, inability to concentrate, etc. There are many, many symptoms. Mine consist of the nausea, insomnia, and restlessness mostly. The headache is always an option with me.

I’ve pretty much decided this is part of the writerly state, part and parcel with the job. Every job has its stressors; I’m experiencing mine now. The book is gone and there’s nothing I can do but worry about it.

Anything making you anxious today? Any anxiety remedies?

What I’ve learned about renovation that differs from HGTV:

1. It takes longer than 30 minutes.

2. There is only one Carter Oosterhouse — and all the other semi-decently good looking carpenters and contracters are also employed by HGTV. Because they aren’t at my house.

My renovation project has officially gone over time. I think. See, I distinctly remember someone telling me it’d be done in a week (it’s not a big project, really). But that was probably before they factored in — what I like to call — the drunken drywall dude.

Oh, I’m not saying he was drunk on site. But he IS a drunk. And that affects how quickly he works, when he shows up for work, and when he has to leave. Because alcoholics need their drinks and they need their recovery time. Take, for instance, the exchange on Friday afternoon when he asked me if he could come at 8AM and work until about noon on Saturday to finish the drywall. And I said sure, because hubby and I don’t typically get motivated to run around town until noonish anyway.

Now, when I tell him it’s okay, I’m looking at him sort of askance and thinking, “Yeah, like you’ll actually be here.” The day I was told he’d be here at noon, he didn’t arrive until almost 3. And it was nearly Friday night and he looked like he needed a drink. Eight AM on a Saturday seemed about as likely as a short trip to the moon and back.

What do you think happened?

Exactly. I’m up at 8, waiting. No dude. Nine comes, no dude. A different dude, not drywall, arrives to put speaker wires in the wall and do some other things. This guy is nice, competent, and a great worker. I like and trust him. If he says he’ll be here, he’ll be here.

Drywall dude never shows. Never calls. Nada. Monday morning, drywall dude arrives with another dude (presumably a babysitter of sorts) and they finish the drywall. Do you think he said a word to me about Saturday?

Nope.

But that’s not my only adventure in renovation yesterday! In the afternoon, a different guy shows up — not with my renovation contractor, I can tell, because he has no company truck. He’s in a green truck, he’s not wearing a shirt (and, alas, he looks nothing like our example above), and I’m thinking he must be at the wrong place. He gets out of the truck, digs around for a shirt, manages to get it on, and comes to my door.

It’s the tile guy from my builder come to finish my backsplash. Did I mention I’ve lived in this house for over a year? That the tile people have made and broken more appointments than I can even remember? He showed up unannounced (good thing I was home!), alone, and with tile that looked suspiciously wrong. After much banging on the tile, frightening the cats, and asking my opinion about the color once he’d sealed it, the backsplash is done and tile dude is gone. I can only hope the color holds out once the sealer dries.

So, that’s my excuse for not having a Monday post. Adventures in reno land, minus the good-looking hunky shirtless guy in a toolbelt and jeans. And that crazy HGTV tries to make it look so easy (and sexy), don’t they? What kind of house project adventures have you had?

I have workmen in my house, hammering, sawing, and making noise all day — and I’m eyeball deep in revisions. So, nothing new from me. Except I could use a quiet afternoon all to myself…..

Whass up with you?

Sunday night, the weather was nice, just a little breezy. He sent an email at 8AM that said it was getting pretty windy, though they still had power. He expects it to go out later in the day. But, he’s got that generator and plenty of supplies. He also said they’d had 6 to 10 inches of rain by about 11 something last night when he sent his first update.