Cute Cleo Story...

Ok, this is a tad late. I was watching the hockey last night and doing research work for my ms (I'm good at multi-tasking). Yay Ottawa, Vancouver and Calgary - talk about a fantastic hockey night in Canada. All three teams won :) Six hours of hockey - doesn't get much better than that!

Anyway, back to Cleo. She and Chloe have a favourite toy (it's the Gone Fishin' dangle toy - they don't let me link directly to it - grrr). They love it so much, that inevitably they chew through the elastic string so it can't be dangled anymore. Being an indulgent cat owner, I like to keep them happy, so when I saw the Gone Fishin' toy on sale at our local grocery store, I bought one to keep in reserve. I sneaked it into the cabin and hid it in a plastic bag at the back of our corner bookcase. The other day Cleo was bopping around as usual, then went very quiet. As parents know with kids, this is often a bad sign, meaning they're into mischief. Cat mummies know this too, so I looked around and spied a fuzzy bum sticking out of the bookcase. Then I heard a tell-tale jingle. Ok, she'd found the toy. More bum wiggling and the sound of rummaging and a moment later, she emerged triumphant with her prize and tossed it on the floor. I managed to grab the camera and snap some pics:

I let her play with it for a few minutes, then put it away and brought out one of their other toys to compensate.

Even funnier, several times that day she went BACK into the bookcase to see if there were any other toys to find!

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Thanks to Margaret and Melissa for their comments re my goals dilemma. I probably have been over-analyzing. Will stop now *g*. Instead I've been focussing on more research to make sure the plot will work as I've set it out. It's based in history and I don't want to screw things up by not making sure what I've come up with could have been possible. Obviously, my little group of consiprators is a fabrication, but from what I can tell, they could have existed as I've written them. But I have to be sure.

Teresa

Currently Reading: Dark Angels by Karleen Koen
Also Currently Reading: The Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
Link of the Day: World Images (link courtesy of Madeline Hunter, via her workshop at RWAOnline)

Life goals vs. story goals...

I've been struggling with this over the last few weeks and think it's part of the problem I'm having with my characters. GMC has always formed a big part of my story planning, yet with this story in particular, I'm finding my hero and heroine have life goals AND story goals. So which one is paramount? When working with GMC, we ask "What does he/she want?", then have them work towards it. My characters want one thing overall in life, and another for this story in particular. Are they truly divergent?

There is no doubt that one informs the other, yet I don't see the life goal as being an internal one, per se. That was my first thought, but I it didn't follow through when I examined it more carefully.

Am I making too much of this? Over-analyzing? Should I just include both and work with the story goal first and life goal second?

Any insight into this is most welcome :)

Other than that, more progress on the house has been made. The footings were poured last week, the electrical shed now has a roof on it (as of this afternoon) and we spent Saturday night at the site in our camper. And both the Senators and Canucks are up 2 games to 1 in their respective playoff series!!!

Oh, and I've been noodling about with another story idea, one that might, in the end prove a tad easier to sell as it's set in England rather than France - though it still takes place in 1793, a decidedly unusual time period.

Tomorrow I'll relate a cute Cleo story, complete with photos.

Last, but not least, my heart goes out to the relatives and friends of those who lost loved ones today in Virginia.

Teresa

Currently Reading: Labyrinth by Kate Mosse
Link of the Day: PageFour Notebook - updated version

My Easter Weekend...

was a busy one. On Friday, Sean and I were over at the property till just after 4:30. Upon arriving home, we chatted with a visitor while Sean helped his dad with a construction project, then our neighbour came home with beer! As it was about 18º and sunny (sorry, Kelly), we all grabbed one and gabbed for a while before Sean, me and my in-laws headed out for dinner.

Saturday I spent five hours over at the property by myself while Sean did a spring clean and check of our camper. I had a fantastic time - put my MP3 player on and bopped along to the music while dragging branches etc over to the merrily blazing fire (I managed to start it that day without even matches!). Did grocery shopping on the way home, then settled in to watch the Habs/Leafs game. Spent much of the third time muttering about the ref. (pout, pout)

Sunday we went to a pysanky party! A friend of ours is Ukranian and hosts an egg painting party every Easter. Very cool, though I learned it's more like batique on eggs than painting. Lots of people, yummy food (potluck) and I actually managed a half-decent couple of efforts. Funny thing - if you break an egg by mistake you get to chuck it over the back fence (they live out in the country too). Both Sean and I had the satisfaction of watching our cracked eggs hit the trees (we each cracked one). I vaguely remember my Polish grandmother doing eggs as well, somewhere in the deep distant past. Am looking forward to next year. We were there for hours, socializing between sessions at the egg table - good fun.

Monday we cleaned the cabin and did other general chores, before consuming an early Easter dinner. My contribution was a citrus cranberry sauce. After Sean went to bed I started judging contest entries. Also pulled up my contemp story from NaNoWriMo and discovered it actually shows some promise! The first entry I read through has all the earmarks of a beginner writer - hope my comments prove useful.

The regional fire ban for backyard burns goes into effect this weekend, so next week I should be able to dive back into my ms. Until then, I'll be either at the building site or running errands. Cement for the foundation should be poured tomorrow!!!!!!! Yay!!!!!!!! If the weather's decent this weekend we may take the camper and spend our first night on the property.

Ok - on with the rest of my day. Have to meet Sean at the local building supply store in about an hour to choose a roof tile colour :)

Teresa

PS - Hope those of you with pets haven't been affected by the food recall. I almost fell out of bed this morning when I heard Royal Canin had recalled one of their tinned foods. Thank the Lord, the one we feed Chloe and Cleo wasn't the one - theirs has no gluten in it at all. Still, very scary, especially as I thought the recalls had finished.

Currently Reading: Dark Angels by Karleen Koen
Also Currently Reading: The Labyrinth by Kate Mosse

Comments MIA again...

It appears to be a conflict between links from Picasa WebAlbums and the Comment feature here at Blogger as the only time it's happened is when I've included photo links from WebAlbums in the body of my post, both today (see post immediately following this one) and on March 27. So if you have a comment about my post from earlier today, showing both the outline of the house and Cleo the crazy kitty, please put them in the Comments section of this separate post.

Thanks!

Teresa

Outline of the house...

Well, the forms for the cement are done - and they give a pretty good idea of the outline of the house:



I took it from what will be the back of the house, looking towards the driveway. Pretty cool, huh? See, we really ARE getting house!!

If you want to see the photo full size, along with other angles, click on the album cover below:

New House

And here are some cute pics of Cleo enjoying the sun:









Teresa

Today's post...

is over on my Building blog... please visit there for the latest photos.

Teresa

Five questions from Kelly...

Here are the five questions Kelly gave me to answer:

1. If you could pick one published author who’s career you would like to emulate, who would it be and why?
Elizabeth Chadwick. Over the last 17 years she's slowly, but surely, become a fan favourite among readers of historical fiction, particularly those who love the medieval period. Not only that, her writing has improved from pretty darned good at the start to absolutely fantastic now. Her gradual rise through the midlist allowed her to survive in the not-always-easy world of publishing as each of her books built on the strengths of the previous one. Last, but certainly not least, she's generous with her time to both fellow writers and to her readers, taking the time to give talks and participate in online discussion groups, where she shares her experiences and doles out sound, sensible advice.

2. Your favorite flavour of lip gloss.is...?
Raspberry - anything raspberry tastes good to me. If I had to have a second choice, it would be vanilla.

3. Most embarrassing moment for your high school days.
Hmmm, nothing in particular stands out. Though I was at one point a bit of a waterworks at school dances - hormones and love songs never seemed to mix well with me. Especially as I was a wee bit of an ugly duckling at the time, so never had a date.

4. If you could be transported back into one historical period, what would it be?
1483 England. Just like my heroine in Trust in Love, I'd want to go back to meet Richard III and ask him WHY in heaven's name he left his nephews behind when he went on progress in July 1483. I don't believe he murdered them himself, but by not keeping them with him, he abdicated his responsibility to guard them from those who sought to use them as pawns.

5. Hollywood has called. They want you to pick your favorite book to make into a movie and do the casting. Which book do you pick and who gets cast as hero and heroine?
Of my own mss, it would be What the Heart Remembers, with James Purefoy in the role of Adrian and Kate Winslet in the role of Cécile (I know, she's not French, but she looks more like my vision of Cécile than my other choice, Audrey Tatou).

Of books already published, that's a lot harder. I've so many books I love, but I'll give it a shot - Elizabeth Chadwick's The Falcons of Montabard is one of my faves - I'd probably go with Ioan Gruffudd as Sabin and Laura Fraser as Annais - she played Kate the Farrier in A Knight's Tale, and her character should have been, IMHO, the heroine of that movie.

Great questions, Kelly! Thanks :-)

I'm off to bed now - still recovering from my week hauling deadfall etc and preparing for another busy few days. Am hoping to get back to my story at some point as well. Our niece was up to visit this weekend, along with my brother/sister-in-law. Family weekends are so much fun!

Teresa

Currently Reading: Dark Angels by Karleen Koen (I'm savouring every page of this wonderful tale of intrigue, love and politics at the court of Charles II)