Too. Early.

It’s just not right to start the day at 3:00 a.m. So while I try to find my brain cells in the bottom of my coffee mug, here’s a great quote from my inbox this morning:

“Brainwash yourself before somebody nasty beats you to it.” – Rob Brezsny

There, isn’t that a good reminder. I think I’ll write a bunch of affirmations in my journal this morning. Here’s one to start with; “This book is strong, exciting and funny. The work goes quickly and easily.”

Flower Power is back with a brain swap

Back on Flower Power. Ahh, the friendly cheerful happy hippy flowers! I love writing on Flower Power. It feels so safe, so inviting. “Come on, sit down, write something. It’s groovy, baby.” Husband did a brain swap and now the hard drive doesn’t *clunk* when it’s powered on.

Shannon gave me an “Aha” moment with her post about dung beetles. OK, not the dung beetle part, the why does this part suck so much part. I write out of order, too. I even end up with scenes that don’t make it into the book because they don’t fit when I go to put it all together. I’m in the putting together phase with Miss Lonely Hearts and yesterday I was ready to go study the dung beetles instead. But it’s just a stage. I know what’s wrong. I know how to fix it. I know I always get through this part and it always works in the end.

This is about the time I start pulling out Lawrence Block and quoting, “It’s only a book.” Really. The fate of the free world doesn’t rest on me. I just have to make this character arc coherent. Besides, some of the funnest scenes are just ahead and I’m really looking forward to getting to that part!

FAR gives Cat 5 Angels!

And FAR gave Wolf a great review, too! Great way to start the week.

From Fallen Angel Reviews, 5 Angels for Catalyst.

“Catalyst is seductive from start to finish. It is romantic, sweet and sensuous. It is a courtship between too independent people who are drawn together by the inescapable pull of chemistry. It’s about the thrill of the chase and the ecstasy of capture. Catalyst had toe curling highs, bittersweet lows and wild misunderstandings. It is about life and love and everything in between. If you crave the idea of a slow seduction, then Catalyst is the book to read.” – Janet

Ahhh. I especially love that part “about life and love and everything in between”. I was chatting with a writer friend last night about the kind of story I write. She said I write a “steaky plot”, which is why they take longer. Great description. I like the idea of writing a story a reader can sink their teeth into. Even if it doesn’t go as fast as I want it to, drat it. (The writing takes longer, I mean. Not the reading. “Fast paced” is an almost universal comment on all my stories.)

Plot’s on my mind because I’ve been mulling over Secret Project A. I typically use a three act structure, but I think for Secret Project A I’m going to need to use a four act instead. It’s bigger as well as longer and I think that structure will support it better.

Meanwhile, FrankenMac and I have Miss Lonely Hearts to finish up.

FrankenMac says hello and comments gremlin

So with Flower Power out of commission, I’m working on FrankenMac. FrankenMac is cobbled together from used spare parts and has no case, which means if I ever have to power FrankenMac off or on, I will need to shove a plastic pen up into the metal side to engage the “button”. (Husband was very clear that it must be a PLASTIC pen. Nothing metal. No metal, you heard that part, right, wife? You weren’t thinking about your story? Plastic.)

I heard. Plastic. I got it. Actually I’m hoping I never need to shove anything into FrankenMac, but if I ever do, it will be plastic.

Before you start feeling sorry for me, FrankenMac has far more processor power and RAM then Flower Power did, so it’s a screaming machine. Bigger screen, which is pretty neat. I don’t want to admit how much time was wasted watching video trailers which Flower Power was incapable of running. (BTW, the one for Tristan and Isolde is gorgeous. With great music.)

FrankenMac also has the newest Apple OS, which means I now have a dashboard with widgets. Husband has been trying to lure me into switching by telling me how cool widgets are. If he’d told me I could have a speaking Yoda widget and a solitaire widget, I wouldn’t have put up so much resistance. (I love hearing Yoda said “fear leads to the dark side”.) Widgets are cool. Widgets are worth upgrading for. So are cool movie trailers.

FrankenMac and I are going to get along okay. Although I still don’t want to shove anything in there and hope I never have to.

Comments gremlin: the newly upgraded WordPress is working fine except for the tiny fact that when people leave new comments, it doesn’t say so. The comments are there (including the amazing fun smileys; I love the aien head smiley) so feel free to comment away. They just don’t show up in the count. The very smart husband will figure that out later on today, I’m sure. Meanwhile, if it says No Comments and you just commented, don’t worry. It’s there.

My husband got me smileys

This morning at the Teglia household…

Me: “I need smileys. My blog doesn’t have smileys.”

Husband: “Yes it does. If you type it in, WordPress converts it to a smiley.”

Me: “It’s not the same as the little graphicky ones you click on.”

Husband: “It doesn’t need that.”

Me: “Yes it does. Other people have them. Shannon has them. She has a dancing penguin and a whip cracking guy and a coffee drinking guy.” *lower lip quiver*

Husband: “So if other people’s blogs have them, you have to have them, too?”

Me: “Yes.”

Husband then spends the morning upgrading WordPress to support custom smileys, getting smileys to work, and then porting all my files, applications, passwords and settings over to the backup computer because Flower Power’s hard drive went *clunk* when I powered it on this morning. (This wasn’t an instant crisis, because my husband had been expecting Flower Power’s hard drive to go *clunk* and has had all my data backed up daily in preparation of this moment. I lost NOTHING.)

My husband, my hero.