Living Online

I got hold of a copy of this casette (for 13 cents at Salvation Army) and listened to songs that bring back memories. As I recall, it was a vinyl record that I purchased back when “Who Can It Be Now?” and “Down Under” were popular. The lyrics still make me smile. Men At Work had/have such a sense of humor (I don't know if they're active). Traveling in a fried-out combie On a hippie trail, head full of zombie I met a strange lady, she made me nervous She took me in and gave me breakfast And she said, "Do you come from a land down under? Where women glow and men plunder? Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder? You better run, you better take cover." Buying bread from a man in Brussels He was six foot four and full of muscles I said, "Do you speak-a my language?" He just smiled and gave me a vegemite sandwich And he said, "I come from a land down under Where beer does flow and men chunder Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder? You ...

I didn't know Stephan Andreas Schwartz's name, but I sure recognize his face. If you read romance, you probably do too. I like the name Andreas. In one of my WIPs (that is really just a 10,000 word idea on my hard drive) the hero is named Andreas "Dray" Andreasson. Repetitive names like that are popular enough in rural Alaska. I called him Dray because, repetive names aren't popular in the rest of the US. Well, also, I liked Dray. Anyway... I was recently thinking about that story idea because Whiskey Creek Press Torrid is looking for romance involving Alaskan men. Jennifer Colgan pointed this out to me. ‘Men of Alaska’! CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS! What is the appeal of those ‘Alaskan Men’? Why does the term have such a mystique to it? Could it be because they’re hot, sexy, lonely, and oh so ready for love…or maybe just some steamy lust? They say Alaskan men just won’t commit, but maybe they just haven’t found the right women! Whiskey Creek Press Torrid is looking for...

We’ve got crazy stuff going on at work that is hurting people and has gotten worse thanks to the water cooler group. I have opinions all right, but I stay out of it. I got to thinking that I don’t get involved in the gossip because I normally watch, listen, absorb, and change it all around into fictional situations. Ah, ha! So, I am a gossip! Writers basically are gossips. If we write romance, we get into character’s heads and solve their relationship problems. If we write literature and don’t feel restricted by the HEA, we get into our character’s heads and let them not solve their relationship problems. Sensational gossip show up in my stories. It is a natural fit. In one WIP called Blindsided, the heroine rams into the hero’s squad car. This showed up after my father told me how he’d watched a woman ram a police car. I bet that is still conversation at the police station. I find "gossip" in other stories all the time. Actually, when I read, it’s fun to find those things th...

Did you hear that Google bought YouTube for over 1.5 billion? Ah, and here I have to go to work tomorrow. I was wandering around on Romance Divas today and saw they started a book trailer group over there. I liked this video Cassidy Kent's new release.

Fall Colors Originally uploaded by Annalee Blysse . Yesterday I was driving through Verdi, NV so I could take Dog Valley Road and wander around in the mountains (the Sierra Nevadas in California) and take pictures of the golden aspen. This maple tree caught my eye though. I liked the varied colors and the way the sun streaming through the leaves emphasized them. This one is planted at the Volunteer Fire Department in Verdi.

I was checking my e-mail today and found a cool new blog that many of you might be interested in. Ebooks--Releases and Contest by Pamela Tyner . She writes contemporary romance author for New Concepts Publishing. She has set up a blog so readers can locate information about Epublished authors’ new releases and contest.

This sign is gone. The casino shut down. But... it was lovely.

Fly Geyser, Black Rock Desert, Nevada Originally uploaded by David-sm™ . This is not my image! I wandered over to flickr, bouncing off a blog of course, and looked up this subject because I saw a picture of Fly Geyser in the Black Rock Desert in the newspaper this morning. The only time I've ever drove up to Gerlach was in the winter, and the basin was too muddy to explore. I haven't actually seen Fly Geyser in real life. I'll have to go back. Rock formations like Fly Geyser inspire me to write about futuristic planets. This formation is just over a hundred miles from my house, but it screams to me ... another world.

No lyin', this one will make you laugh. I was surfing on over to Rose Middleton's blog, and that joke was the first I found. But I also got to considering the world down under when reading her other posts. One reason is I watched Wolf Creek this past week. Anyone seen Wolf Creek? I liked it, and I tell you what... If I ever manage to drive across the Australian Outback, I will remember that movie every single time I stop for a look-see.