Well, I survived the week...barely. The only thing holding me together is the thought that this was just a dress rehearsal for the Christmas Holidays. THREE full weeks of kids, kids, kids (can you hear me screaming?). I need a game plan and I need one fast. Too bad I'm too busy with laundry, cooking and writing to be able to dedicate brain cells to an event so far in the future.

Thanksgiving Day. It's my favorite holiday...no expectation of gifts, just food, food, and more food. It's also nice that we were able to go to my brother-in-laws where my kidlets played with their kidlets and for the most part didn't destroy anything major (although some limes gave their juice up in the name of fun) and no one got hurt (well, Kinderboy#1 fell off the top of the play car...his "I'm really having fun and not writhing on the ground in pain" laugh didn't sound too authentic, but since he was back up on top of the car within minutes, I figured it wasn't serious). Kinderboy#2, Mr. Picky Eater himself, gorged himself silly on tortilla chips and soda. I didn't put the kibosh on his feeding frenzy as I'd fed him a PB&J sandwich before we came (to get some actual food into him) and he actually ate a huge serving of apple/yam bake and didn't catch on that the orange bits weren't apple! Perhaps there is hope for him yet.

I've also planned a repeat of turkey Day on Sunday, as I absolutely must have leftover turkey. I love my sister-in-law's cooking, just not her turkey. Each year, she experiments with something to dress up the bird. One year it was lemon-pepper & barbecue, this year, it was stewed tomatoes. I enjoy the adventure, but I crave the traditional. That roasted bird may be boring but I totally live for cold turkey sandwiches the week AFTER Thanksgiving. That's one of the bad things about going out for Thanksgiving feast...I don't feel as if I can be a total pig and steal all the leftovers. No, I feel compelled to be polite and not fight over that last piece of pumpkin cheesecake (although I so totally wanted it...and all the stuffing, and...and...and). So, this weekend, we'll be doing the feasting all over again. Yum.

Today was Black Friday. I didn't go shopping. Mr. Scott, in his infinite wisdom, scheduled Drama Teen's follow-up CT scan on a day when no one in the neighborhood was home to babysit the Kinderboys -- they were shopping!. To his credit, he managed to come down with the cold & cough from Hell and had to stay home from work sick. Gleefully, I stuck him with the boys and took Drama Teen to her appointment. As I pulled into the Imaging Center parking lot, I was amazed. There was a total of maybe 20 cars there. I've never seen it so empty! The staff was pleasant, underworked, and smiling. I've decided that next year, I'm scheduling ALL of our appointments on Black Friday (okay, maybe not all of them, but I'm going to try to work at least one in).

Which brings me to my wrap up. Thanksgiving is about giving thanks. The Scott family has a ton to be thankful for. Drama Teen's health, the Kinderboys as not only the bestest adopted kids in the world but also the most entertaining. I cannot imagine my life without them. My life would be boring and much less fulfilling if it wasn't for them. However, I'll admit that what I am most Thankful for this week is that soccer ended last week. There is no butt-freezing 8:30 am (who the heck made up the schedule anyway???) game. We can finally go back to my regularly scheduled Saturday sleep-in.

Next week, I hope to be able to report that I've finally tippy-tapped THE END on my revised ghost story. It's coming together, albeit very slowly as the week draws to a close, but I think I've got the climax in my head. I just need to get it on paper.

Oh! Maybe I'm not most thankful for the end of soccer as I realized I'm ecstatically thankful that the kids go back to school next week. I'd like to give whoever invented the concept of sending kids to school for a large chunk of hours a great big smooch! (except, call me an ungrateful *itch, I only wish he'd invented school for 6 days instead of just 5).

Happy Leftovers!

Ericka

Yep, here it is, Wednesday, and I realized I didn't give you a frenzied Friday family update nor my typical writing-related Monday blog. So, here's an atypical Wednesday update instead.

The screaming in my head started on Friday, when the knowledge that the kids would be home 24/7 for NINE days straight, sank in. Now, as day 5 dawns, I realize it hasn't been that bad. The weekend was relatively "normal", the kinderboys had their last soccer game and then spent the rest of the weekend puttering/shopping/doing family stuff. Monday was a tougher proposition as I didn't have anything firm planned to do. The boys got up before 6 am...which meant we all got up over an hour before we had to and everyone was miserable (especially me). By 9 am, I'd had it with attitude and sent Kinderboy#1 back to bed. Peace reigned until noon when I picked up lunch from their favorite fast food joint (bet I don't have to tell you what that is - hint, it starts with an M and serves burgers & fries) then roused him out of bed. He was in a much better mood for the rest of the day (big smile). Amazing what a little sleep will do.

Tuesday, Drama Teen needed some medical lab work performed. By the time she rolled out of bed and we got going, it was nearly noon. So, after an hour of waiting in a stuffy room with hungry and antsy boys, her blood was drawn and then we ate lunch out, and got home after 2 pm. It was a warm afternoon and the entire neighborhood seemed to be outside playing. Drama Teen sat on her favorite rock in the front yard re-reading Twilight and the boys played with their friends. As for me...I snuck off and took a short nap. Again, amazing what a little sleep will do!

Today, I've got my act together. We'll be hanging around the house this morning and already the video game wars are in full force.  I laid in a supply of personal-sized pizzas at the grocery store last night for our lunch. This afternoon, we'll be heading off to see Planet 51, not to return until it's almost time for dinner. Thursday is taken care of with cooking and then traveling to my brother-in-law's for Turkey Day dinner and lots of family & fun. Friday, I'll just have to play by ear. Hopefully, it's another nice day and I can just toss the kids out into the yard.

However, I can see that I'm going to have to have a better game plan over the Christmas holidays.

Now that the screaming in my head has abated somewhat, I'll confess that I've managed to do an amazing amount of writing amidst the chaos. Monday, while the kids "hung out" in their jammies playing video games and watching the boob tube, I banged out over 3K on the epilogue of the ghost story I'm revising. I'm doing something different with this part of the book. I'm calling it an epilogue...leading the reader to believe that the story is in the bag at the end of the previous chapter. Then, wham...I'm heating it up again for the REAL climax. I just have to finish this scene and type The End. Then, edit & polish the epilogue, make sure there's no inconsistencies,  and do a final spell check, etc. before I submit it. The great thing is that it's now 80K, which opens up a couple more markets for the book (fingers crossed)

Here's wishing you a happy Turkey Day (if you are here in the states and celebrate), if not, have a great rest of the week and weekend!

Ericka

Not of anything in particular. Just literally sick with a head cold and tired. I've managed to sneak off for a lie-down every day this week thanks to the kindness of Mr. Scott and Drama Teen. Thank goodness is was a short week, what with Veterans Day plunked right in the middle of it.

Winter seems to be right around the corner (finally) here in the high desert. We've been having a gorgeous Indian Summer, but I'm in the mood for some winter comfort in the form of lasagna, roasts, beef stew, etc. Hopefully, this upcoming weekend I can shove an angry pot roast (cross rib roast) into the oven and cook it all day long. I may even fire up the bread machine for some lovely crusty rolls, and if my cold allows, may even attempt to make a Yorkshire pudding. When I was a child, nothing on earth could have induced me to even try a bite of one of my mom's specialty "puddings" - which to me  meant chocolate and vanilla sweet creamy stuff, not a puffy bowl of pastry.  Now, I think I could survive on Yorkshire pudding...given enough gravy to eat it with.

I'm sure none of the Scott children will even take a nibble of the Yorkshire pudding. Well, take that back, Kinderboy#1 might. He's our adventuresome eater. The other two, Drama Teen especially, are picky eaters.
Kinderboy#2 will eat chicken nuggets, sausages, meatballs, yogurt, and the requisite peanut butter and jelly. That's about it. Oh, and french fries....mustn't forget those.

Drama Teen is our expensive protein eater. She isn't fond of pork, chicken, or beef. Dish up crab legs, shrimp, lobster, salmon, and most fish and she'll dig right in. She's become more open to trying new foods since she's gotten bitten by the cooking bug. If I can drag myself off my deathbed to get to the grocery store today, we'll be having Indian curry tonight, compliments of Drama Teen. She watches Gordon Ramsey's F word and Kitchen Nightmares faithfully and asked for one of his cookbooks for Christmas. I'm hoping she'll throw in a side of curried scallops along with our Chicken Tikka Masala and Shrimp Korma, tonight. Can I say how much I love this child's cooking?

Let you think this post is only about food, I'll drag in that we have our last two soccer games upcoming. It's going to miserable out there now that the weather has turned cold. Most of our games have been at either 8:30 am (misery) or 9:15 am (slight less unpleasant). My preference was the 10:30 games, but I didn't make the schedule (sigh). Tomorrow's game is at 9:15, so we'll be out there freezing butt. Someone who'll also be out there in the cold is Drama Teen, who has a fund-raising car wash tomorrow. She has to be to the High School at 8:30 am to squirt cold water at cars. Can we all say "Brrrrr"

Next week is a full week of school and then the school district has "generously" given the kids a WHOLE week off for Thanksgiving (can you hearing me screaming????)-- sigh. So, I'd best be off and write while the house is quiet.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Ericka

(Insert big sigh here)

I've always prided myself on trying out books by new-to-me authors, I've had especially good luck with finding audio books and e-books by new authors that I've particularly enjoyed (The Rule of Four, The Baker Street Letters (looking forward to the sequel), Anyone Out There?, and Dead of Winter, Haunts of the Heart and Redemption. However, the last three books by new-to-me authors that I've purchased at my local big-box bookstore have been bombshells. They sounded like what my dad would have called "humdingers" on the back. Great, compelling back cover blurbs about topics that interested me.

The Poe Shadow -- I love Poe...not so much his writing, but just the romance of his character and the mystery of his death. This book promised soooo much and delivered soooo little. I slogged through to the end, disappointed, dismayed, and disgusted that I'd wasted the money on the book. It was a New York Times Bestseller, but I wonder how many other people who purchased the book were sucked in by the advertising?

Another literary figure book that I picked up from the cover and the back blurb was The Dracula Dossier. It combined TWO characters that are sure-fire sellers for me. Bram Stoker and Jack the Ripper. I opened the books with barely suppressed excitement on Saturday night as I had several hours of quiet time to read. The opening letter reminded me of some of the "newly discovered" Holmes stories, and I prepared to sit back and enjoy. It started out with such promise...a bloody knife. Cooey! I think my first indication that I'd been deceived was when the footnotes began appearing fast and furious at the bottom of every page. I've made it through 99 pages and will probably skim bits and pieces to see if it picks up -- there's some sort of secret society, a lunatic asylum, and a weird guy to follow, but I still feel as if I was terribly deceived by that back cover copy. Again, THIS is a NY Times Bestseller????

The last one was a horror novel I picked up as it involved a haunted house (rather an apartment complex) and I had high expectations. Audrey's Door. The title wasn't all that compelling but I guessed that it was using the premise of that "door to the other side" that drives a lot of horror/paranormal plots. I settled down to read. First off, I will say I loved the interspersion of old newspaper articles with the current story. For me, it lends some credibility to the fiction. Then, there's the spooky residents, ghosts, and the odd building who is a character itself. I really, really, REALLY wanted to enjoy this book. I made it to page 255 before I realized that I was no longer interested in finishing the book. I can't summon up any sympathy or empathy for the main character, Audrey. I think she is perhaps too flawed and too unlikable, in your face, stinking unlikable and, in my opinion, she never redeems herself. Then, there is her boyfriend who is infinitely more likable than the main character and should have kicked her to the curb a long time ago and never looked back. He deserves sooooo much more than what he gets in the end (Yeah, I skimmed to the disappointing ending, closed the cover, and was glad I didn't have to open it up again).

Now, these aren't proper reviews by any stretch of the imagination. I wish the authors great success, but, I won't be paying money for anything else they write (sorry guys!). The next book I'll be reading will be something by one of my tried and trues...Jeffrey Deaver, Dean Koontz, Patricia Cornwell, CS Harris....or....just to name a few.

Have a great reading week!

Ericka Scott

P.S.

What have you read that's been a disappointment or an unexpectedly rousing success?

This week has been hectic, to say the least. I'm sure I'm not the only one who wishes there were a few more than 24 hours in a day so that they could get everything done. Foremost among those is Mr. Scott... Every November, he's involved with an intercollegiate programming contest. This year, they had to move the contest up a week. 7 full days that he and the other judges could have used. Needless to say, my husband's been a little sleepless for the last couple of days. I'm just looking forward to Monday when life will go back to normal...or at least what passes for normal here in the Scott household.

Drama Teen had her heart broken by her first love six or so months ago. As the flame lives in our neighborhood, it's hard not to acknowledge that he's got a new girlfriend. I noticed Drama Teen looking a bit pensive the other day and leaped to the conclusion that she was feeling a bit blue about the situation. Au contraire, she was quick to tell me, that she wasn't the least bit sad about "that", she had just heard through the grapevine that Mr. Heartbreaker and his new young love were going to be parents. Parents! While I'm thinking "Better her than you", I asked Drama Teen how she felt about that. Her reply was more mature than I'd imagined. "Doesn't she know, Mom, that having a baby at sixteen isn't a good thing? There's diapers, sleepless nights, and she's not going to be able to hang out with her friends. Babies are no way to fix or keep a relationship." My heart hurts for Drama Teen, she talks a good game, but I know it has to hurt. I gave her a big hug and then we bonded over laundry.

The school invited us to an IEP meeting for kinderboy #1 today. We'd dutifully filled out the surveys they sent us and were interested to find out if the school psychologist had any insight as to what makes our little guy tick. The best guess is a pretty severe cognitive learning disability. Mr. Scott, who thinks like a computer programmer because he is one, explained it as an input/output problem. The information is going in just fine. Kinderboy#2 is just having retrieval problems. I'm hoping the interventions will aid in unlocking the info. Now, if they could only figure out something to cure his stubbornness! LOL.

Kinderboy#2 had his first playdate with a friend on Tuesday. He and his buddy walked home to the other boy's house and spent the afternoon goofing off, watching movies, eating popcorn, and playing video games. Kinderboy#1 was heartbroken that he didn't get to go too. Luckily, kinderboy#1 and our neighbor's other boy are friends. So, we're going to do a kid swap for the afternoon. I'll host one of mine and one of hers and she'll have one each as well. The only downside is that our new friends have to move during Thanksgiving week to a faraway town. So, I may have a whole 'nother set of broken hearts at the Scott household.

As for what's up with me...I got a sort-of rejection. A "we liked this piece, needs more work before you submit it again." So, I put zombie historical on hold so that I can polish up my haunted house story. On re-reading it, I have spotted some areas to improve and may end up adding a couple of thousand words. If'n I do (which I hope I do), I can then submit it to a couple of other markets that take a minimum wordcount of 70K. So, all is well in my world.

I'll be blogging over at Romerotica Authors tomorrow about my love affair with haunted house stories and my upcoming trip to the Mission Inn in Riverside. Is it haunted? I've stayed there several times and never had anything odd happen, but one never knows!

Have a great weekend!

Ericka

Can you tell I'm mega excited?

Then, on the other hand, I feel a bit as if I've failed some strange test of being a stay-at-home mom. I quit work to take care of the kids and the house. Yet...the house is neglected, to say the least. And it's not that I can't clean house. I can. I just don't want to. There are things that I don't mind doing and things that I hate. And honestly, there just isn't any job satisfaction in cleaning.

I've finally come to the decision that I could devote every hour of every day to the house, laundry, kids, etc. But what fun is that? I want to write and I want to make a success out of writing. To do that, I need the time.

Thus, we've hired a housecleaning service. Did I tell you they come tomorrow? I can't wait....

Overheard at the boys school Halloween carnival today: "Could you hold my eyeball?"

I volunteered to help at the school today. As a result, I kept my eye on three little guys as they played games and acquired candy (lots of it, as though trick-or-treating tomorrow night won't be enough). The boys seemed to have fun and the school had the whole event well-organized.

This week has gone by in a bit of a blur. Monday, I interviewed the last housekeeping candidate. Tuesday, I made my decision and hopefully by the end of this upcoming Tuesday, my house will be clean and sparkling.

Tuesday, Drama Teen and I went to the dentist. I'd like to say fun was had by all, but honestly, there were a lot of cavities between us. Needless to say, I've become the toothbrush Nazi this week.

Wednesday, Kinderboy #2 went to the dentist. Cavities again abounded. Plus, the poor guy had two adult teeth pushing in behind his baby teeth. The dentist "wiggled" them out (Ouch). As a result, Kinderboy #2 got to miss an entire day of school so that the "sleeping juice" applied to his teeth and jaw wore off. He now thinks that going to the dentist wasn't so bad after all. In addition, he earned a visit from the tooth fairy. All is well in his world.

Kinderboy#1 had a better week. Of course, he was working toward two goals. The first was to participate in the carnival. The second was to get ice cream from the truck on Friday. He's still having some academic difficulties, so the school psychologist ran a few "tests". We haven't gotten the final results back, but from the preliminary stuff, it looks like he has a fairly significant cognitive learning disability. In a way, it explains why he can spell his name one day and not the next. Of course, I still think there is a liberal dose of contrariness in his system that aids and abets in his "forgetfulness"...but if pulling him out for some special instruction during the week helps, I'm all for it.

Mr. Scott traveled to Las Vegas for a couple of days at the end of the week. I'm sure it was a welcome break for him. Lots of work for me...but that and this entire week has validated my decision to hand in my editing towel. I'm finishing the last couple of books assigned to me and hope to have everything done, done, done by 1 December. Hopefully then I'll be able to really buckle down and WRITE. I miss my zombies. Of course, with tomorrow being Halloween, I'm sure I'll have more than a few of them knocking on my door.

We watched The Midnight Meat Train tonight, to help "get us in the mood" for the year's scariest day. Interesting premise and twist... When we got to the extras and Mahogany (played by Vinnie Jones) was narrating, I was exceptionally glad that he only had one line in the movie. His voice is like dark chocolate, rich and sinful... Although I thought the movie was all about the gore...he created an incredibly deep character just with his presence. Brava.

Tomorrow night, after all the ghouls and ghosties have retired for the evening, we'll be queuing up The Unborn.

Have a Happy Halloween!

Ericka

The family Friday update will be delayed until later this evening in order to make this announcement!



http://bittenbybooks.com/?p=12446

Welcome one and all to day 29 & 30 of our month long bash of bloody goodness.

Today’s contest is easy and fun. The winner will be announced later this week. There are 48 prizes for today! Spread the word!

What I'm donating:

Author Ericka Scott
http://www.erickascott.com/
$10  Amazon Gift Card. Open to readers worldwide.

It's been an odd week. Monday was just busy, then, all hell broke loose on Tuesday. I started off for my walk and realized my IPOD was dead. Since the day was cold and blustery, I opted out of my walk. Good thing. I got back to the house to a phone message. Mr. Scott had wrecked the van! Thank goodness he wasn't hurt, but my poor, poor van was in bad shape. We spent the rest of the morning coordinating insurance, towing, and car rental.

Wednesday the kids were home all day from school...need I say more.

I headed off to my critique group that evening with 12 pages of a new prologue to my zombie historical grasped in my hot nervous hands. I'd thought the previous prologue that I'd passed out last month was lame. Imagine my surprise when my six critique partners thought it was THE BEST writing I'd ever done. I handed out the new prologue...but came home and immediately stuck the old one back into the file (note to self, never delete sections...cut and paste them to an odd document you can discard only after the darn thing is published). Then, they have convinced me that third person POV is better than first...not such an easy fix.

Thursday, I interviewed cleaning services. I'm sooooo excited. Sometime in the next week, I will have my house spik and span AND have someone coming out at least once a month to keep the writing cave in order.

There's been very little drama out of the kids this week. Drama Teen has been singularly drama-less, Kinderboy #1 has had some breakdowns, but nothing out of the ordinary. Kinderboy#2 is getting his pictures retaken today (although I don't hold out much hope that the second set will be much better than the first. Sigh)

We have an early morning soccer game tomorrow. Thankfully, I'm not snack mom this week.

Now, I have to get back to changing the first three chapters from first person POV to third...so that I can get back to writing forward next week (between dental appointments, but I'm sure that will be another story for next Friday.)

Hope you have a great weekend!

Ericka

This week in review...

Monday started off with one sick Drama t=Teen (not sure she was really sick, although she looked and acted as if she didn't feel well) and then kinderboy #2 asked to come home from school. He, however, didn't look or act sick. I brought him home, warning him that there would be no television, no video games, no computer. He would wear pjs and go back to bed...as that's what sick people did. After a  few hours of chasing him back to bed, offering him "sips" of water, because that's all that sick people could stand to drink, he'd had ENOUGH. Crying and moaning because his tummy was rumbling, he finally admitted that he'd only pretended to be sick as kinderboy#1 insisted that it was fun to stay home sick and kinderboy#2 had to try it out for himself. A deal was struck...kinderboy#2 could put his clothes back on, eat lunch, and head back to school for the last 1.5 hours. He did, and swore he'll never pretend to be sick again. Well, we'll see...

The rest of the week passed fairly uneventfully. Wednesday was a teacher-conference day so there was no school (we have another one this week, what the heck is that about????). We went to see G-Force, which was actually quite entertaining.

Thursday, Drama Teen had a close encounter with a fetal pig in Physical Science. It was already dissected, they just had to identify, draw, and learn the parts. The smell of formaldehyde (or whatever they preserve in these days) got to her, but to her credit, she stuck out the rest of the day. However, she's now a semi-confirmed vegetarian. While shopping at the store, I picked up veggie bacon and texturized vegetable ground "meat". Honestly, the bacon really isn't bad. Expensive but tasty. We'll be using the meat for spaghetti later this week. I did note that "vegetarian" didn't deter her from picking out scallops to eat for dinner tonight. Although I'll agree that seafood looks nothing like pig.

Kinderboy #1 had a decent week until Saturday at the Edwards AFB air show. If you were there and saw a family pretty much dragging a kicking and screaming child out through the gates, that was us. He's six, but like a two-year-old, no was his favorite word yesterday and nothing, nothing, nothing would do. He didn't want to go to the air show, didn't want what anyone else had for snack, and most of all, didn't want the same souvenir as everyone else got. Well, sorry. We had six kids with our group. They all got the same thing. Period. Either that or we knew it would be fights and fits all the way home. I bought him a souvenir, but he didn't want it and tried to throw it away. I fished it out while he wasn't looking and tucked it in my purse. Then, when all the planes had flown over and it was time to pack up and leave, he didn't want to go. Sigh. As soon as we got home, another fit ensued because everyone was playing with their toy airplanes and he didn't have one. When I pulled out his...he didn't even say thanks. Grrr. Contrary little cuss.

All in all, it was a pretty good week and I'm looking forward to next (with the exception of that silly conference day on Wednesday...sigh). Hope you all have a good one, too!

Ericka