Last week, my boss took me to lunch at 501 Arthur. It was fabulous! Great food, great atmosphere, etc. They had an unobtrusive sound system. You knew the music was playing, but it didn’t overpower conversation. As he was paying the tab, an instrumental came on, and I started humming with it. Then, my mind just went blank. I couldn’t remember the title of the song, or any of the words. The only thought my mind registered was that Dad used to sing it when I was little, and it was one of the few songs he sang. He had a deep, baritone voice that edged toward bass, and he could really hit the low notes of the song — if I could only remember the name of it.

I kept humming it when we got back to the office, and after about an hour or so, I finally remembered the name of the song. You guessed it, The Streets of Laredo. Now that I finally had a name, I looked it up on YouTube. Wow! There are several different versions of the song. And I watched all of them with tears in my eyes.

Then I discovered something that no “Daddy’s girl” should ever have to face. He had part of the lyrics wrong. Apparently, he didn’t remember all of them and just filled in with other parts of the song that fit. So, I sat at my desk, making the strange sound that’s somewhere between a laugh and a choked cry and decided to keep singing it the way Dad did.

Now, here’s the freaky part. I got home that night and DH had the television tuned to the western channel. You’ll never guess what movie was on. Yep, The Streets of Laredo.

Now, I’m not so much of a believer of messages from the grave, but this coincidence was just a little too much to ignore. The song is basically a cowboy who is dying and who wants to tell his story to a young gunslinger to keep the young gun from the same fate. A “learn from my mistakes” theme, if you will. Dad had several mantras, and one of them was “work smart, not hard.” When he used it, he meant learn from my mistakes, or learn from what I’ve learned and save yourself some time and trouble.

So, what do I think he was telling me?

Get off your butt and finish the damn book.

Yes, Daddy.

On her 1000th victory. It is an outstanding accomplishment. However, what I find fascinating is that she also has a 100% graduation rate in her basketball program, and she mentioned it last night during the speech. She’s as proud of that as she is of the win. Even before the days of the WBNA, her “girls” were going to be successful in life as well as basketball.

Coach Summitt was mic’d during the game last night, and the effect of her comments to the players was evident when in the last seconds of the game, with a huge lead, they were still fighting, still shooting, still playing defense, and still scoring.

I think I’ll try to find a picture of Coach Summitt’s famous glare and use it as the wallpaper on my computer screen. Then when the writing feels like it’s too much to handle, I can imagine Coach Summitt has me on the sidelines saying things like , “Get up in their face” and “Don’t back down.”

Have a great weekend, everyone!
Jessie

Well, I blew the Springsteen song picks, but there’s always next year.

We’ve had more crazy weather. Ice, snow, rain, freezing temps with wind chills below zero yesterday, and it’s supposed to be up in the 60’s tomorrow. It’s a wonder we’re not all sick.

But my boss is. He’s got what we call the creeping crud. Kinda starts out like a cold, and in a few days you’re miserable. Not as bad as the flu, but worse than the common cold. I got an e-mail from him this morning saying he’s staying home (where he should be) and is trying to get a doctor’s apt. I e-mailed him back and told him to stay home and get completely well before he came back into the office. Yep, I’m the soul of human kindness.

However, in this case I’m being a little selfish. My birthday is Saturday, and I’m looking forward to some party time. If he comes in tomorrow and shares the crud with me so that I’m sick over the weekend, it won’t be pretty around here.

I haven’t heard back from him yet.

On the writing front, I’m still working on Stygian and something new. Still waiting on tenterhooks for a response on my non-fiction piece. The publisher I sent it to didn’t have a response time listed, so it means I get to obsess about it from the minute I sent it in instead of a couple of months down the road.

That’s why I have chocolate.

Jessie

And so much has happened.  I had a wonderful Christmas - 30+ friends and family at the house on Christmas Eve.  Lots of great food (I gained weight), good times, and lots of presents for the kids.  I received an IPod Touch from my sweetie, and I’m totally addicted to it.  I take it everywhere.

New Year’s Eve was nothing spectacular.  Never celebrate it, but a few neighbors set off some fireworks, and I enjoyed the mini show.

Then, the playoffs.  Ughhhhhh.  None of my teams made it.  So, I’m pulling for the Cardinals.  The Cinderella team.  It seemed like all the favorites imploded at the end of the season, the strange, wacky season.  And UT football?  Looks like Lane Kiffin is doing what needs to be done, but it’s a wait-and-see process.

On a lighter note, I bought a new pair of pants a couple of weekends ago, and the zipper is on the wrong side.  By that, I mean I zip it with my left hand (like men’s pants) instead of the right.  Every time I wear them, it throws me off balance.

On the writing side of life, I’m working on some projects and hope to get them out by spring.  One is a non-fiction book on world building.  The other two are fiction, one sci-fi and the other an alternate dimension romance.

Jessie

Well, I finally got to see a Colts’ game — almost.  The station cut away from it in the 3rd quarter, because the Colts were winning by such a large margin.  I turned the channel and finished watching the Tampa Bay game.  Doesn’t CBS know the Colts fans have been waiting for a game like that?

My disappointment wasn’t long-lived, though, because Sunday night we added a new member to the family.  A 7 month old Rottweiler named Rocky.  We got him through a private rescue agency.  He already comes up past my knees and is all paws.  He’s very sweet tempered and just wants to play and be the center of attention.

I’ll be heading out to the Women’s Expo in Kingsport, Tenn this weekend.  It’s a great line-up this year with Teresa Medeiros, Julia Quinn, Lora Leigh, Beth Williamson, Marie-Nicole Ryan, Trista Ann Michaels, Jennifer Estep, and several others I can’t remember off the top of my head now.  Plus, if you’re a JR Ward fan, there will be an auction for a complete set of the Black Dagger Brotherhood books signed by the author.  There’s a dinner with the authors on Friday night, and the authors will be signing books on Saturday & Sunday.  Please stop by and say hello if you’re in the area.  You can find more information at www.womensexpoauthors.com.

I usually miss the Tennessee/Alabama game while I’m at the Expo, but this year it’s the Vols v. Mississippi State, and it’s only available here on Pay-Per-View.  I hope the Vols win, but I’m not holding my breath.

Jessie

I’m not referring to a certain cheese snack mascot’s underwear.  If you live in the South, you probably immediately knew the title refers to a piece of furniture.  A chest of drawers.  

I’ve seen lots of discussions lately on e-mail loops about this sort of thing, and today while pondering what to write on my blog, I developed a case of the hiccouphs, or hiccups as the case may be.  Of course, you might try to scare them out of me with a ball-ping hammer, or even a ball-peen hammer.  A strong centrifugal force might work, too (if it were real), but a centripetal force would work better.

In minding my p’s and q’s, I quite forgot about the r’s and s’s.  So, I believe I will ponder this with a bowl of my favorite razberry sherbert, while my pernickety (the s is an addition) evil twin delights in her raspberry sherbet.

Jessie

I managed to make it to the Food City Food Show here in Knoxville over the weekend and left with two bags of stuff - both of them bursting.  There were a lot of vendors, and I came home with a few more ideas on dishes for my once-a-month cooking.  So far, most of the dishes I’ve frozen have come out well.  One of the chicken dishes came out a little dry, the spaghetti sauce, the meatloaves, the roast, the chicken salad, and the BBQ chicken all turned out great.  But I’m still looking for healthy dishes that freeze well, so if you have any recipes you think might work, give me a shout.

Now, back to the Food Show:  I also got to meet Dwight Fryer, JT Ellison, CL Wilson, Elizabeth Boyle, and Anna Windsor.  It was also nice seeing JoAnn Ross and Teresa Medeiros again.  SMRW opened a hospitality suite and we were able to spend some time with the authors.  Dwight Fryer is simply an amazing story teller.  I picked up both of his books at the Food Show and can’t wait to start reading.  CL Wilson gave us a wonderful mini workshop on description which was awesome.

Now, I’m gearing up to speak at SMRW’s Super Saturday event.  I and fellow authors Kate McKeever and Cheryel Hutton are presenting a workshop on Worldbuilding, which will also encompass psychic characters and a “creature feature” for those who love weres, vamps, dragons, and things that bump in the night.  Michael Knight and Shannon Burke will also be giving a presentation on plotting, and several other SMRW members will present basics workshops.  For more details, check out their website at www.smrw.org/events.htm.

Not even talking about football.  The Vols are in a heap of trouble, the Colts didn’t play, TB won, but Dallas lost.  Although, Brett Favre’s six touchdown passes were impressive.

Jessie

Synonym: n.

My Handy Dandy Thesaurus suggests: Well, actually it doesn’t suggest anything. However, it is included in the entries for description and equivalence.

We learned the definition of synonym in elementary school - two words which have the same meaning, or somewhat the same meaning.

As authors, we sometimes want a new word for walk, or said. Usually, because we’ve used walk or said a hundred times in our current manuscript, and if we’re tired of using it, the reader will most likely be tired of reading it. Won’t they?

Maybe. Maybe not. I won’t go into that here. What I want to discuss is the author who uses the obscure word found in her thesaurus for tearful — lachrymose. If I had read lachrymose in a book (prior to today), I would’ve had to look up the meaning, or try to glean it from the surrounding prose.

My first thought when encountering a $5 word is not, “Oh my, what a wonderful vocabulary this author has. He/she must be brilliant!” No, it’s more like, “Did you realize the word lachrymose would pull me right out of your story and send me to my dictionary?”

In other words, I’d rather read the dictionary than stay in the world you created.

I suppose it’s better than someone who’d rather read the incredients on the cereal box than your story, but only marginally so.

And after I close the book, will I pick it up again? I might, because I leave very few books unread once I start them. But it will probably go in the giveaway box.

Jessie