Some Saturday Snapshots

So, hope you all aren't as freaked as I am that we're coming on to the end of September. Really, my head hurts.

I've been scooting around Facebook and different blogs this past week and I found a few things that were especially interesting. I also scored over 500,000 points on Jewel Quest Solitaire. While I didn't get all the writing done that I wanted, I did make some major changes to my fiction.

My original manuscript for the first story in my series, Seven Days, was over 700 pages long. I've since edited it down to a much more manageable length, almost half. I realized that part of the story was told by the heroine's sister and her story was told in book two, Seven Months. I started SM with her POV of the events in SD, then realized I had enough for a whole other book. The great thing is, everything is already written in my notes, it is just cutting, pasting and editing.

So, there will be:
Seven Days: Will and Elizabeth
Seven Days: Rob and Mary
Seven Months: Will and Elizabeth
Seven Months: Rob and Mary

More than enough craziness and loving as these two couples, two brothers marrying two sisters, discover life together. Other books will follow, with friends' and children's stories to be told, but I'm well on my way to getting these stories out. There will be some overlap, with the same scenes told from two different points of view, but we'll find out what was happening to dramatically change lives, while the primary story unfolds.

So, I promised pictures. I found this one posted on FB by Teresa Medeiros:

Found originally on the Random House site. While I watch some reality TV, pardon me if I really don't care to follow the train wrecks on "JS."

I found some pictures, going through my files, that represent each of my characters. The first is from my extremely hot, but very geeky hero William:

Found on SF author David Brin's FB post and from the NASA website originally. Will would have this up on his office wall to remind himself just how insignificant almost all of our problems are.

One of the first scenes I wrote was between Will and Elizabeth at a Chinese restaurant. I had eaten at one with my husband and my fortune in the cookie had the Chinese word and character for blessing. I thought, isn't that great? Will would say Elizabeth is a blessing to him and start calling her that. A few months later, I was up in Indianapolis for work and went into a Half-Price Books to find these at the checkout. I grabbed about a dozen and I wrote another scene into the book where Will does the same.

It is the Chinese character for "Blessing" and it has the word in script on the border. The orange ribbon is quite long and while I have one out of the package, I haven't used it yet. But, I have them and they're very special to me. I think God sends me signs I'm on the right track and this was certainly one of them.

Elizabeth/Lizzy's next younger sister is Mary Margaret. She works in computer software support and is completely thrilled when Will sets up a job interview with his computer gaming company. Because she has spent most of her life reading, on the computer, practicing her piano or flute or working in her beloved garden, Mary Margaret often bemoans she is Mary of the Perpetual Virginity. When she finds out Will has a younger brother and he is coming out for the oldest sister's wedding, she knew her life would totally change. Here's an iris (one of her favorite flowers) from my garden a few years ago:

Love the purple--I didn't prune the faded blooms, because I wanted to show all the stages of the flower. That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it......

Finally, we have Rob, short for Michael Robinson D'Arcion. He performed under his first and middle name in a boy band in his teens, but walked away and is "hiding in plain sight" in New York City. He is more than willing to help Mary Margaret with her virginity "problem," but she has to spend a few months in Japan first. Can't make it too easy--Michael had a HUGE following there and he has to resurrect what he hates to show her he is really serious about a life together. He loves being in the big city, so I chose a picture that author Linda Francis Lee posted of Manhattan with a view of Central Park. Yes, our boys have money.

So, as I look through magazines or books, I try to scan and save things in my character files that make me smile and inspire me to discover how he or she would react to all the @#$% I throw at them.

What pictures inspire you?