Story Ideas

It's a question that's been asked a million times but I always like to know where story ideas come from.

For me, so far anyway, there has always been a basis of fact in my ideas. For example, the story I'm working on now (a recent idea but I've been going to town on it, so to speak) came from an event that happened a week ago - at the baseball game. Since most everyone who reads this blog has access to my other one, I'll be brief in the description but it came from the kiss cam proposal that happened at the baseball game I went to. The woman had a deer-in-headlights look throughout the entire episode and the man was giddy with excitement. I never saw him ASK a question and I didn't see her give an ANSWER so what if there was a miscommunication there? Maybe the question is only implied and something she does (which actually happened), albeit inadvertently, causes him to jump to the conclusion that she's accepting the implied question. (Well, not so much implied since it was in big letters on the big screen but not actually verbalized.)

Aside from the fact that I witnessed a proposal like this recently, I've incorporated some other incidents from my personal life. Like, it's their third date and they haven't so much as kissed (or even held hands) and he's proposing. (That actually happened to me a few years back.)

But this brings me to my big question of the day. How much of your personal life / experiences do you bring to the table when forming your ideas? How much of your heroine is actually you?

Inquiring minds want to know. :-)

Work in Progress, otherwise known as Change is Good :-)

Last night I was wandering around online and to make a long story short, I decided my blog needed a face lift, so I went in search of a new look and this is what I decided on.

Now, being that I'm not a computer programmer, don't know computer codes, I'm pretty limited on what I can do without mucking up the page. In fact, last night when I was trying to deposit all my information/codes onto this new template I had a heck of a time. Things were overlapping at one point, which, sadly, wasn't the worst of it. Oh no! During one stage of the update process, the clock, current book, archives, favorite links, etc. appeared after every single blog entry. That's right folks, you didn't have to scroll to see what time it was in Rome because at each new entry, there was the clock, along with everything else now on the sidebar.

Fortunately, I had opted not to "save" my changes until I got it right because I never would have figured out how and what to pull out of the template to fix some of my mistakes. However, I was afraid to add too many extras not already on the template because of some of the snafus - which is why the page count feature is not currently displayed. I don't think this is the final - FINAL product but I think it's a good starting point - for now.

It seems to suit me. :-)

Take me out to the Ballgame...

Last night my group at work was treated to a night out a Minute Maid Park to see the Astros play. We'd worked out the details long before Roger Clemens announced he was coming back to the Astros and finding out he was going to be pitching his first game this season on the night we were scheduled to go was pretty cool. The stadium was completely sold out and it was standing room only but because we'd planned so far in advanced, we had good seats.

Now since Roger Clemens was pitching they turned out the lights and let the stadium be lit by the flash photography. Ha! (But let me tell you, cameras were flashing all over the place!) We had a company/department camera with our group and I had stressed that I did not want my picture taken because I hate the way I look in photos these days. As a result, there are more individual pictures of me than of anyone else in the group. The one to the left was the least offensive to me. LOL

One of the pictures of me was taken when I was tapped on my shoulder by one of those white tubes you see (posters of Roger Clemens) and I turned around. I saw the camera pointed at me, closed my eyes and said NO. What the camera captured was my eyes closed and my mouth WIDE open, as I looked over my shoulder. Not attractive at all. And if I hadn't suffered a moment of intense annoyance when I saw it, I wouldn't have deleted it and would have even posted it here for your viewing horror. LOL

Anyway, the most exciting thing about the game was the parking experience. I rode with someone from work and my "guest" for the evening met us at the game, having come alone. Now, the person I rode with is like me - not cheap but a single woman with bills to pay so she knew where we could find $5 parking "two blocks" from the stadium. When we got to her parking lot I was afraid to get out of the car the neighborhood was that bad - and it was daylight! (For the record, two blocks to my friend means "two blocks this way and two blocks that way" which means four blocks to me, but I digress.)

So, we realize that my friend is probably parked in a different $5 parking lot and since she's my guest, there is no way I am going to let her walk to her car alone after the game. I tell her we'll take her to her car. Her response was, "Or I can take y'all to yours." Nothing further was said on the matter and we head out of the stadium. We're walking and talking and walking and talking when my cell phone rings (gotta love "vibrate" when they're in your jeans pocket lol). It's a friend from work (actually the woman whose back you see in the picture) - she'd meant to walk my guest to her car but had forgotten. She's at her car and wants to know if her and her husband should wait for us. I said no, we were fine that we were going to take Tamara (my guest) to her car. Tamara stops and says, "I thought y'all were going to take me to my car." Kelly (my ride) says, "I thought we were going to your car."

Apparently we were wandering aimlessly through downtown Houston without a clue as to where we were headed. (Being that I was a passenger regardless, I'd left all decision making up to Kelly and Tamara...maybe not the best decision of the night. lol) I relay to Brenda (the friend from work who is waiting at her car for us) what is going on and change my thought about them waiting...I ask them to please wait for us. Please.

At this point, I have no idea where we are or where we're going and I'm not convinced that Kelly or Tamara know where they are either. The crowd that you walk out of a game with has thinned and it's just the three of us and Kelly's six year old son walking in the middle of no where. We finally find Tamara's car (she had been parked next to Brenda and her husband) and send her home. Brenda took us to Kelly's car and we all left.

Now, I already mentioned that I was not happy with the parking lot in the daylight but thought it could just be my imagination running away with me, right? (because I do, after all, have an active one at that) Come in this morning and Brenda was talking about how scary of an area it was that we parked in, what with all the homeless people hanging out there and all.

But hey, we only had to pay $5, right? LOL

Saved by the....t-shirt?

I'm all for helping someone who gets in a bind - through no fault of their own but someone who squanders their money and then wants someone else to bail them out??? Sorry. Not for me.

Have you seen the news that Dustin Diamond (aka Screech from Saved by the Bell) is about to lose his home to foreclosure so he wants to sell t-shirts to raise the money? He said that "If the public didn't care, I as an entertainer wouldn't have been a success."

Dude, you're asking for handouts. Obviously our definitions of "success" differ.

I don't know. Maybe it's just me but I wouldn't buy one of those shirts if the money was given to me to do so. To do so would only encourage this type of behavior in the future, by him and others who would either a) live beyond their means; or b) piss their money away and expect hard working people (who live within their means) to support them.

So not happening!

Second Chances

I'm not usually one to give an author a lot of chances to impress me. Occasionally I'll give an author a second chance but it has to be on a recommendation of someone I respect.

Which brings me to the book I read today, Kiss Me While I Sleep by Linda Howard. My last venture into Linda Howard's books was last summer and To Die For. It was told in first person with a strong heroine and a totally alpha male. If you don't know this already, I can't stand alpha males. I really liked the heroine in To Die for and I really liked the story but I kept hoping that whoever was gunning to kill the heroine would miss their mark and kill the hero instead. Of course that didn't happen. But it really put a bad taste in my mouth for Linda Howard's books.

So, Pam mentioned the suspense in Kiss Me While I Sleep in her blog and I had to buy it, giving Ms. Howard a second chance. I should probably throw in her that last night (or maybe this morning, time is a bit of a blur the last couple of days) I looked at the reviews of To Die For on B&N.com and I wasn't the only one, shall we say, less than thrilled by the book. Several people commented that it wasn't how she typically wrote and that it was enough to reconsider buying her again - despite the fact that she'd until now been an automatic buy. That says a lot.

Anyway, I started the book late in the afternoon today and finished it this evening. It was good. Told in third person so you have several points of view throughout. I really liked Swain. I thought Lily trusted Swain too easily, given the circumstances, but I really liked them together. I enjoyed the story and, despite Pam's chant (it’s a romance so they are going to live, it’s a romance so they are going to live, it’s a romance so they are going to live), there were points (and one in particular) where it wasn't clear that a romance fashioned ending was in the cards for all parties. I thoroughly enjoyed the book.

Next up is Lisa Kleypas' Someone to Watch Over Me. I bought it at my local chapter meeting for $1. It's an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) and the cover looks nothing like the cover on my side bar but I've heard it is a good story and that I'll enjoy it so..... :-)

Pride and Prejudice

I've finally finished Pride and Prejudice and I have to say, it was hard to read. And by hard, I mean it felt like it was taking forever. Not in a, "I hate it, when will it end" kind of way but I usually can gauge how long it will take me to read a book based on the number of pages I have to go. This was not the case with this book. Every page took longer than I would have thought - almost as if I was reading a textbook. I will say this though, about the pages, the typeset seemed to be smaller so it may be that more words were actually on the page than would have been in most books. But that's just speculation on my part.

In any event, I really liked the book. I loved the story of Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy (did we ever learn his first name? I don't think we did, now that I think of it.) and the way it was told.

I also loved the story of Jane and Mr. Bingley. Jane reminded me of Melanie in Gone with the Wind with her loving, forgiving heart.

And Mr. Bennet, I loved him, even though he was barely mentioned in the book. His fondness for Elizabeth and his dealings with his wife were humorous - well to me, but then I'm easily amused. :-)

I think what I was struck with most though was the fact that I was reading a story that, when written, was a contemporary novel. It wasn't a written "historical" as we know them today. The author didn't attempt to "transport" the reader back in time because that was what was happening at that time. Few of the male characters were addressed, if ever mentioned, by their first names. And when women were married (Charlotte), they were then known/addressed as Mrs. whoever (Mrs. Collins), as would be appropriate for that time. Today's historicals would reflect more of a familiarity between people in that, while they might address each other as Mrs., Mr., Lady or Lord whoever, the reader almost always knows their first names.

Same goes for fashion. Wardrobe was once mentioned when Lydia married and her mother was concerned that she have a "wedding" wardrobe. Aside from that, no particular attention was given to the dress of the time. Today, pictures are painted with the words to show what everyone is wearing, presumably to transport us back in time.

Hair, once, to address that it was more important that Jane's hair be attended to than anyone else's since it was Mr. Bingley visiting.

So bottom line for me is this: I loved the story but I also loved the lesson in history it gave and the differing styles of today's writing vs. that time. It makes you wonder what generations from now will think of our writing.

But now that I've FINALLY read the book, I can finally watch the movie. I can hardly wait. :-)

I'm finally going to do it

I'm going to read Pride and Prejudice. Yes, I realize I'm the last person on earth that hasn't read it before now but I'm going to this weekend so I can check that off my list of things to do - presumably.

I don't know why I've waited so long to read it. I don't know of anyone who didn't like it. Heck, my friend is watching the movie over and over and over again (she watched it again last night - although that's not necessarily the same thing as reading the book but...). Maybe I'm afraid it's been built up too much and can't possibly live up to its hype. Of course, that never stopped me from seeing movies that were built up (but then, I've been disappointed in that area as well).

Maybe it's because it was written so long ago, how could it be any good? Yes, I know that makes no sense but what can I say? I don't know what it is that has made me reluctant to read it.

I will say this though, Nora Ephron has never steered me wrong before. After all, if Nora hadn't made Harry and Sally obsessed over Casablanca, I probably would have never watched it. Loved it by the way.

It was Nora who introduced me to An Affair to Remember in Sleepless in Seattle. Again, good movie.

And it was Nora who made Pride and Prejudice its own character in You've Got Mail.

She was right about Casablanca and An Affair to Remember so she has to be right about Pride and Prejudice - right?

Right!

Well, I'll let you know in a day or two if I still feel that way. :0)

Obsessions

I've blogged before about having a book buying obsession...in fact I may have alluded to that fact in my last post. :-) (By the way, I won six more books in Brenda Novak's auction and bought another book at the store today - Impulse (Thanks Pam! lol) by JoAnn Ross.)

Anyway, I get teased a lot about the number of books I buy and read. (Since my last blog - in addition to the auction and the "Impulse" buy - I ordered two more books off of amazon.com.) But, this one lady at work (who really gives me a bad time - all in fun) was telling me that she recently bought the movie Pride and Prejudice (the newest version). She was telling me how she watched it all weekend long - over and over and over again. And she was telling me what she liked about it and how every time she watches it, she sees something she missed in it before.

So today I was telling her that I won those books in the auction and she was giving me a bad time - again - and we were laughing about it. When she left my office...or should I say as she ducked out of my office, she says "I watched Pride and Prejudice again last night."

Which one of us has a worse problem do you think? I'd say her. At least I'm reading different books each time. lol