The Game of Life



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Last week my husband and I celebrated our two year anniversary at a resort in North Georgia.  The cabin was nice  It had a private hub tub and a king-size bed.  The flat screen television, however, only had four channels.  That's okay.  Nobody comes to a resort in North Georgia to watch television anyway.  There's hiking, wineries, and horseback riding.  And hey, if you're settling in for the night and you want to watch something not on one of the four available channels you can either borrow a movie from the main office (free of charge) or, if you're me, you just whip out your iPad and watch something on Netflix.

OH MY GOD!!!!  NO INTERNET!!!!!  WHERE ARE WE??? THE TWILIGHT ZONE????

Panic.  Panic.  Trying hard not to panic........It's okay people!  I had everything under control.  I had Candy Sugar Crush downloaded on my iPad and the Bubble Witch Saga - neither of which requires the Internet.  (Slowly calming down.) There's nothing like a game addiction to distract you from not having the Internet.

I also had my Kindle but pretending to pay attention to my husband is so much easier when playing a game on my iPad.  I can look up, nod and smile, and then go right back to playing my game.  With the Kindle it would obvious I wasn't listening and I didn't want to hurt his feelings.  I'm saving that for the 10th anniversary. Moving Along....

In addition to complimentary movie rentals, the main office also had board games available.  Our last night at the lodge - a cold and rainy one at that - we settled down in front of a fireplace and played the Game of Life.  It had been so long since either one of us played it that we actually had to read the rules.  Weird....

It's a neat game.  You can start off with either a college degree or a non-degree path.  If you choose college you immediately have debt with the bank but later you can pick your career and your salary.

Somewhere along the way everyone gets married and has children.  I had three children and the two youngest were twins (Ouch! My Uterus!).

By the end of the night/retirement we had paid off all of our student loans, changed our jobs a couple of times and walked away with over a million dollars each.

WOW!  Wouldn't it be nice if the Game of Life could be Real Life?

Then I got to thinking....yes....it hurt.....for several days after too....Writing a novel is a lot like the Game of Life.  However, instead of being at the fate of a draw pile, the fate of my characters is in my hands. (Evil Snicker)  They are as educated/wealthy/successful as I want them to be.  Most of the time I'm nice but every now and then I send someone to jail without passing Go or collecting $200.  (Different game -  I know.)

Side note:  If my protagonist wakes me up one more time in the middle of the night, whining about her weight and demanding I remove 30 pounds off her waist; I'm going to fire her from her cushy sales job and write her into a waste removal position.

Darcy Walker - A bad influence to anyone on Weight Watchers

Grade A Stupid by A.J. Lape
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Darcy Walker! You're my hero!!! Finally a female protagonist who actually eats...and not just an apple slice and a few lettuce leaves. While every other female protagonist out there is a skinny health food fanatic, Darcy Walker is gobbling down corn dogs and chocolate milk like there is no tomorrow. Sigh. A girl after my own heart.

Okay, okay. I get it. No one cares about her eating habits - on to the actual book review....

Grade A Stupid is a witty murder-mystery that fifteen year-old Darcy Walker climbs into and refuses to back away from. Obsessed with saving her friend from a life behind bars, Darcy is so busy impersonating public defenders, chasing down gang members, and gnawing on Jesus cookies to notice two different guys fighting over her.

The only negative thing I have to say about this book is that when the author is describing her characters it sounds like she's reading their physical descriptions off of a Most Wanted poster - A very, very minor flaw. This book is well written, funny, captivating and anything but Grade A Stupid.

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Restless - Book 3 of the King Series - My Review

RESTLESS by Tawdra Kandle
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

****Warning! Contains Spoilers!****

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Dear Tasmyn,

I told you over and over again during the last book to stay in bed. Did you listen? No! How'd that work out for you? I'll tell you how it went. Bad! Very, very bad! You broke Michael's heart, put Amber in the hospital and almost found yourself forcibly exported to Romania by a psycho Chemistry teacher who seriously needs to get a life. I really hope you learned your lesson this time! In fact, I'm anxiously awaiting the release of the next book to find out.

Sincerely yours,

Somebody who really, really, really loved this book! (And has a little too much time on her hands.)



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Never Tell a Woman She Looks Older than Her Email Address

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Here it is! The first draft of my first novel!  Hurray me!  After six weeks of letting it collect dust on my hard drive I went to Staples the other day and had it printed so I could begin the rewrite - (let the games begin!).

The gentleman who helped me at Staples was an interesting fellow; kind of short, bald spot on his head but otherwise normal looking. 

While he was printing my manuscript he offered to enroll me in the rewards program.  Rather than having me fill out the paperwork he just read off the information and I told him what he needed to fill in the blanks. 

One of the last bits of information he needed was my email address.  Here's a fun fact: most of my email addresses end with 32.  It's a nice even number - one that Adrian Monk would approve.  After I spelled it out for him he asked me, "Let me guess you were 32 when you created that email address?"

"Yes," I nodded wondering why he would say, "were."  Was he trying to make me feel old?  So I asked him, "What would you have said if I had told you I wasn't 32 yet?"

He smiled and said, "I had a 95% chance of being correct that you weren't 32 anymore."

RUDE MUCH!  Yes, it's true, many moons have passed since my 32nd birthday.  But seriously!  I don't want it thrown in my face.  I mean really; aren't men in particular supposed to know better? Common courtesy requires that you always tell a woman she looks at least ten years younger than her actual age.  Sure, she'll know you're full of tacos but she'll get a good laugh out of it.

He handed me my manuscript and thumb drive and as he turned I stopped him.  "Excuse me sir," I leaned forward against the counter.  "Can you hold still for a second?  I just want to check out my premature wrinkles in the reflection on your bald spot."

Confession time:  I never said that.  Sadly I lack the gumption.  However, that brings me to Detective O'Brien, a character from my first novel. He's good-looking and very charming - when he doesn't speak.  When he does speak, he comes across as arrogant and borderline rude.  It occured to me that the one physical characterist Detective O'Brien lacked was a bald spot.  I think I'll give him one.

Whereas, I may lack the bravado to make a comment about someone's bald spot (that and I was raised with manners) my protagonist, however, is a completely different story.  Oh yeah....she would go there. Hold on to your horses Detective O'Brien/Staples guy. My girl has a mouth and she's not afraid to use it.

It's fun to be a fiction writer.  You can fix so many things by simply clicking the ENTER key.

Breathless - Book 2 of the King Series - My Review

Breathless by Tawdra Kandle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

****Warning! Contains Spoilers!*****

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

Tasmyn Vaughn's senior year in high school is far from typical but that may be because she, herself, is not a typical girl. The only thing normal about her senior year is her longing to be with her one true love, Michael.

Plagued by nightmares of a girl in a straight jacket, black-mailed by her instructor and the object of a new student's attention who seems suspicious; Tasmyn Vaughn really should have just skipped her senior year and stayed in bed. But, I'm really glad she didn't because that would have been boring.

This story was anything but dull! The dialogue was still a little lengthy in some places but otherwise entertaining and informative. Once again Tawdra Kandle was put together a fun read!


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Fearless by Tawdra Kandle - My Book Review

Fearless by Tawdra Kandle
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I recieved this book in exchange for an honest review. Did you love the Twilight Series? Were you left feeling a void when Edward and Bella's Saga ended? Well, you're in luck because this series is just for you. It has a Twilight feel to it -minus the sparkly vampires and shape-shifting werewolves- and with a role reversal. Tasmyn, our heroine, is the one with supernatural powers while her boyfriend is a normal guy with very good instincts. The dialogue was a bit lengthy in some places but otherwise very spunky and the well-developed plot kept me guessing. Would you like to know more about Tasmyn, her Edward (I'm not going to tell you his real name), and her powers? Then I suggest you flip open your e-reader and start with page 1. Enjoy it! I sure did!

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Things You're Not Supposed to Talk About

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Who would have thought there are rules to blogging?  Yes, in fact there are.  One of the many don'ts of blogging is that you are never supposed to talk about why you haven't been blogging.  Apparently it's in poor taste.  Don't ask me why.  I don't make the rules.  But I do follow the rules...usually.

So...I won't talk about why I haven't been blogging.  I won't tell everyone that three weeks ago I came down with the world's most annoying cold that turned into laryngitis and today, three weeks later, I'm only 60% recovered. 

I also won't talk about how my nine month old has been teething miserably and that even though he still manages to sleep through the night he wakes up exhausted, rubbing his eyes while I'm changing his diaper.

I also won't tell everyone about the green soup I made last week and how I was really worried it wouldn't turn out and quietly wondered if there was a pizza place that could deliver on base because it was after 7pm and the baby was already in bed.  FYI - the soup turned out great but I'm still not going to talk about it because I'm not supposed to...and no one really cares.

I will, however, talk about how I've been working faithfully on my novel and today....this very day in history...I finished the first draft of my first novel (another reason why I haven't been blogging but you didn't hear that from me).

It was ten years ago that I first came up with the idea behind this novel.  Unfortunately I couldn't do much with it because my inconsiderate college courses took up most of my time and then after graduation I had to go out and get a job and the job I got didn't allow me to work on my novel while I was on the clock. Rude!

Two years ago I started working on this novel again, sending chapters to my husband (boyfriend at the time) who was deployed.  He needed something funny to read and I needed something to do.  But then he came home seven months later and we got married, bought house and had a baby.  What can I say?  It was a busy year.

November of 2012 was the first time I participated in the National Novel Writing Month.  I couldn't use the scenes and chapters I'd already written (rules for participation) so I had to come up with all new material.  And so I did.  By the end of the month I had written somewhere between 53,000 and 55,000 words.

Today, my ending word count for the first draft was 88,636 words.  It took ten years for me to transition from a sort-of, kind-of, wanna-be writer to an actual writer.  Who would have thought that after ten years, all I really needed was one National Novel Writing month to light the fire that would keep burning?

If you're asking yourself what 88,636 words means then you've come to the right place.  I stumbled on a blog on the Internet that listed the word count of some well-known published novels.

The link I used is http://indefeasible.wordpress.com/2008/05/03/great-novels-and-word-count/.

All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Remarque was 61,922

1984, by George Orwell was 88,942

The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger was 73,404

I also found on http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20081228060156AA7JS9K that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling was 76,944

and on the same website Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets was 85,141

Obviously my word count is going to change during the editing process but right now I'm walking tall at 88,636 words.  Just in case you're dying to know how many pages that is, according to the Scrivener software I used it's roughly 297 pages (assuming 300 words to a page) in a paperback format.

Well look at that!  I found something to talk about after all!