Blogging Around

While I am granddaughter-sitting, my blogs (written last week) are set to appear on Monday.

The Pink Heart Society has my Male on Monday choice -- Michael Vartan, And the lovely people at We Write Romance are featuring Presents this month and have my blog on the joys of writing for that line scheduled for Monday as well.

Please stop by and leave comments if you are inspired. Always glad to hear from you -- here, there and everywhere.

Also I'm happy to report that my good friend Anne Gracie has been invited to join the Word Wenches on their blog as a regular contributor. She will be writing at least one post a month there, and her first one is also featured on Monday. So please stop by and say hi to Anne.

I'm happy to say that Christo and Natalie appear to have their act together. They had a tough time on Saturday when I threw out a couple of thousand hard fought words, but now that they are sorted, I think some of the words might actually come back.

It's interesting having the end already figured out. It makes what they're doing clearer to me. Less possibility for them to go hieing off to prospect for gold in Alaska for one thing. (I hope).

Still no pix. Sorry about that. I would have loved to post more Michael pix as I have been collecting them for months in anticipation of this blog. But I'd never get this one up if I tried adding a picture.

Did you notice that we've had visitors from 100 countries now here on the blog? It happened during this past week. I'm not even sure which the 100th country was. Togo? Libya? One of those two I think. But they had passed off my neocounter before I was able to discover which it was.

I'm really excited that people from so many places all over the world have dropped in to visit. Keep on coming!

Vanishing Act

I really didn't mean to be gone this long. But the internet connection I have at my granddaughter's house is, um, iffy at best. And as a result, every time I almost got a post going, the connection would vanish.

Which it may again post haste.

I have given up trying to post pictures. That is impossible. No connection would last long enough for one to upload. So you will just have to think about all you know about Cannes and imagine George Clooney or whoever you wish on the red carpet (which is more than you would get from my pictures anyway) until I am somewhere more reliably connected.

The good news is that Christo's book is going like a house afire. I've written 14000 words since Monday. Don't let my editor see this or she will banish me to Texas every time I have a book due.

I think it's that I had nearly a month where I couldn't get anything written, and the ideas kept building up. So they came tumbling out when I finally got going. Then there is the fact that, other than the sick 8 year old, there are no distractions here. Nothing that I specifically need to be doing -- except writing.

And then there's the odd fact that I seem to be writing this book front to back to middle. Which is to say, I wrote the first four chapters, left them with a pizza and couldn't get past it. To save my life, I couldn't.

So finally Monday I began in chapter nine and wrote it and chapter ten, and now I'm going back and filling in. But at least I know where I am going -- an unusual and happy occurence, believe me.

So wish me luck. Today I'm tackling Brazil. Another 1500 words would be a great blessing. Then again, I may have all weekend alone to write which would be somethng that has never happened in my life before. No dogs, even. Boggles the mind. Wonder if I can stand it.

Road Warriors R Us

I just got home and got my clothes washed, and I'm leaving again. This time I'm off to Texas to hang around my daughter's house while she goes to work all day and I stay with the grandkid with mono.

As the grandkid and I get little chance to bond on a regular basis due to the thousand mile or so gap in our proximity, I'm looking forward to it. But I'm sorry she's sick and that that's the reason I am going.

Still, it's a blessing to have the sort of job one can pick up and take along and do at someone else's house. So stand by. I've done all the blogs through the end of the month for Tote Bags and for We Write Romance and for The Pink Heart Society. The first comes on the 20th. And the last two are a week later -- on Monday, the 27th.

I'll try to update my own blog from Texas. That and Christo will be what I'll be doing while the grandkid is sleeping and reading and watching DVDs and working on family history.

In the meantime, here are a couple of photos from Cannes. I had intended to put more up -- and perhaps I'll be able to from down south.

But not tonight. Still packing.

One Good Hero

Not all heroes are Hugh-in-a-towel. Lovely as he is, some others are equally memorable.

One of them is Paul Newman -- a leading man who was more than just a pretty face. He was a heartthrob with a brain, a conscience and a talent for not just acting, but for making other people feel as if they, not he, were really the stars.

I grew up watching Paul Newman, frankly wishing he'd passed on some of the anti-heroes he played because I always wanted to like his characters. Now I can appreciate the challenge that appealed to him. At the time, they weren't my favorites.

My favorite, I suppose, was Butch Cassidy. But Lew Harper, his wry laconic detective, ran a close second. And when I saw Nobody's Fool I fell in love with him all over again.

I wrote a piece 'remembering Paul' for Friday Night Film Night at the Pink Heart (it's Friday by now somewhere) so if you want a trip down memory lane, recalling some of the reasons we should be grateful for the gift that was Paul Newman, drop by.

I'd love to hear which of his films you enjoyed. Gunnar might even be persuaded to make me part with a book or two if he likes your answer!

Catching Up

I apologize for the delay in posts. I have got the laundry done. I've sorted through the photocopies I made at the record office. I am just on my way out the door to pick up Gunnar's meds. And then, I hope, I will be able to do something with the photos I took and share a few with you.

I discovered when I got home that I have lots of other blog commitments in the next couple of weeks. I get the Friday slot this week at the Pink Heart Society to celebrate the long and stellar career of Paul Newman (so stop by and reminisce with me).

Next Monday I am at Tote Bags 'n' Blogs celebrating heroines in general and one in particular.

Next Wednesday I'm writing a "Presents" blog and will post the link closer to the time. And the following Monday, I get to go back to Pink Heart to write about a Male on Monday who made my heart beat faster on prime time television a couple of years ago.

So if you don't find me here, you can certainly find me there.

Not to mention that I am up to my eyeballs in Christo's story, which I have been working on again since I got home. I threw out 2000 words, which puts me a little behind where I want to be. But at least I have momentum back. For a while there it felt like the book was stuck in the literary version of Montana gumbo.

Also, I have just learned from my editor that Savas' Defiant Mistress is going to be an April Harlequin Presents, just three months after Antonides' Forbidden Wife is on the Presents schedule.

Will this make people think I can write a book in 3 months? Good grief, I hope not.

Though it would certainly be nice if I could. Back to work!

Happy Birthday to Hugh!

I've surfaced -- albeit briefly -- because there are some things that cannot be left by the wayside, and celebrating the birthday of Hugh Jackman, aka Hugh-in-a-towel, is one of them.

I will regale you with tales of Cannes and Cornwall when I get home, which will, I hope, be tomorrow evening. So look for something the following day.

Right now I am celebrating Hugh's day with Sophie Weston and her splendid cat, Tom, and enjoying the last day of a wonderful two plus weeks in England and France.

Happy birthday to Hugh!