Sunday Sundries--Favorite Last Minute Trips

So, for our twenty-fifth wedding anniversary, my husband who does occasionally have a romantic bone in his body, suggested a day trip to Louisville, KY, to visit bookstores. We left town in the morning and had lunch at the Big Boy in Corydon.

Gotta love anyplace that serves sweet potato fries!

The drive to Louisville is very pretty.

We ended up at the Half-Price Books store on Hurstbourne first:

We found all kinds of fun things. Some of my characters are game designers and they had a section of games and all things geek:

We also went to the other Half-Price on the other side of town and the Books A Million in the area too. We got quite a haul:

This is just one of three piles of books. Not that we needed them, but it's what we've always done when we went out of town. I love running around with my husband to find out of the way stores. We spent the night and ate at Waffle House in the morning, making another stop off before we headed back home.

My first novels start out in Las Vegas, with four sisters on a bachelorette party for the oldest, who is getting married later that week. They had to move the trip and the wedding up when she got pregnant. Since they went during the week, the rates were very reasonable.

My parents were always up for an adventure too. Sometimes, before the time of cell phones, I'd try to call them and find out later they had gone over to one of the area casinos.

So, do you have a favorite, spur of the moment adventure? I highly recommend them, even if it's just getting out of town for lunch.

Sunday Sundries--Slambook Question: Favorite Travel Memory?

Please forgive me for not being diligent in keeping up this blog over the past week--I was on vacation with my husband to Fabulous Las Vegas! Not only did he play in a poker tournament while I traveled about doing research for the parts of my book set there, we went to celebrate early our 25th wedding anniversary.

Yeah, I'm about fifty pounds heavier than I was 25 years ago, but I'm working on it. I am wearing a Pittsburgh Penguins hat I got flying through that airport many years ago. I got it because I like penguins, but it's a humorous ice breaker because many people think I like hockey. You betcha I put that in my fiction.

This picture is in front of The Bellagio Hotel, where some scenes from one of my books takes place. A character, Mary Margaret, is a gardener and there is a wonderful area at the back of the hotel. This is a picture from our trip there in 2009:

This year, they had a butterfly house, along with the other amazing sculptures and flower beds:

I felt a shiver of delight go down my back. I knew my character, Mary Margaret, would have the same reaction. It is one of her favorite travel memories.

Another of her favorite memories is of the family trip to Gatlinburg, TN. I tell the story about how Mary Margaret got a hematite band at a gift store there that she lends to her sister to wear as a fake wedding band, "to keep losers away at the bar." It's a minor plot point, but I thought about how she would have stood in the gift shop, trying to figure out what to spend her money on, second guessing her decision a dozen times.

She would love the small gardens and planters all around Gatlinburg, as well as the rolling hills:

I didn't put any of that in the novels, but I asked her the favorite travel memory and that's what she told me. It gave me such a great back story, such insight into her. No one else needs to know, but I do.

Mary Margaret realized that she loves to travel--it was one of the most important things in her life. I send her to Japan in the second series of books. While I have never been to Japan, it's on my Bucket List. I've been lucky, because I've been able to travel quite a lot, first with my parents, then on my own and now with my husband.

I turned one of my favorite travel memories into a honeymoon story for Mary Margaret's sister, Elizabeth. Again, it won't necessarily appear in a book (though I might sell it on a website as a standalone), but it gives a lot of background for my characters. Elizabeth and Will go to Hawaii for their honeymoon. Will is a medically retired Marine and one morning, they go to Pearl Harbor. 

We were there on September 11, 2003 and it was truly one of the most moving moments I've had. I can only imagine someone with military combat experience seeing it for the first time.

So, what would be your favorite travel memory? Don't be afraid to ask your characters what their choices would be to gain insight to their reactions and actions.

Sunday Sundries--Let's Try Again, Shall We?

Wow, where did January go, huh? I will promise to be a little more disciplined on posting here. Thanks to all, I'm getting close to 16,000 page views! I've allowed myself to get distracted, though and please accept my humble apologies.

On a Facebook group page (5 a.m. Writers), I posted about having ADHD for writing.

Yes, it should have an apostrophe in there.

I obsessed over a post-Civil War story, novella-length, for about a week and didn't do anything more on my two works in progress that I've almost finished. While I needed to get the notes down, one of the originators of the board, Pam Mason, was absolutely correct. I need to get more disciplined and finish.

Thus, Friday, I focused on combining two short scenes from my hero's point of view. I also added a bridge scene that sets up some action the next morning. It solves a problem (how did something get there?) that would bother some readers, as it bothered me. I'm not finished, but I'm pleased, because it should provide amusement and gives insight into a character while moving action forward.

My husband agreed I need to focus and get this one book done. He often jokes I'm the Stanley Kubrick of romance novels, in that I've been writing and editing for over six years. He makes me laugh. He's offered to do my covers for me, which is a thrill. He works at a TV station and designs graphics for use on air when he directs the newscasts. The first book will have this sign on the cover:

Probably a different angle. It's important, because my heroine will have to move and make a life for herself with her new husband there. I'll take a couple more pictures of it when we go out there at the beginning of April for our 25th wedding anniversary (and for him to play in a poker tournament!). He was worried that the Photoshop program was very expensive. Actually, it's about the cost of what it would be to have two covers made by one service, so there you go. I've discussed the cover of my second book, which would have a spring nosegay on it with a rose color background, with a friend who will help me with the flowers. I'm excited. Here's one I love:

 Thanks to Pinterest for being one of my greatest time sucks. I do want to do boards for my main characters and for each title, though. I'll post links here when I get to it.

I was speaking of heroes and Friday was my dear father-in-law's eightieth birthday. My husband is over visiting with him and some of his brothers and sisters right now. Dad T. is a veteran, a businessman and a fine father. While we often don't agree politically, I'm grateful for him and Mom T. and love them very much. Here's a picture of them at a birthday party a few years ago:

A true love story inspiration.

It is also Super Bowl Sunday, but I have to head off to work here in a bit. It's either going to be incredibly slow or crazy busy (I work in a call center doing tech support). I am going back to spending my lunch hours transcribing notebooks. I will spend down time on my netbook labeling and sorting pictures. Or playing solitaire...

My husband will be watching because it is, well, football. Some friends will be over to watch the commercials.

I was excited to see the movie "Lincoln" last night. It tied into my obsession with my one story, giving me a great sense of place and time.

I truly recommend it. Another thing I want to do is watch more movies with my honey. He's reading a biography of Teddy Roosevelt now and I'm learning a lot of history talking to him.

So, here's promising a little more discipline, a little more productivity, a little less Jewel Quest. Here's hoping I'll keep better on track. Love to all--see you next week, promise.