A bit of the ghosties

Good morning, Internet!

If you've been following the Wee Ghosties blog, you may have noticed a bit of weirdness around my house. Not that that's anything new, I found myself snagged on a baby slide yesterday so why should wandering ghosts surprise anyone. The last month or so has stirred up something in the woods and while nothing surprises me ghost-wise after twenty years of chasing them, it's still disconcerting to have them in my living room.


To update:
Weeks ago I saw a child-ghost run through my living room. I've been chasing spirits for a long time and have experienced a lot of... odd... things that I won't quantify as ghosts but merely interesting. This was a flat out vision and that's not something I'm used to. I usually get a heads up with a tingly nose or they pull my hair but this came out of the blue. So, I did what I normally suggest to my families experiencing anomalies and started keeping track in a notebook.

A number of weeks have passed and nothing happened out of the ordinary. Until last night. Getting to bed around 1am on a dark night my husband and I heard a loud crash and a flicker of orange light -not unlike a flame, in the living room (as seen from the hallway). I popped up and went to check, of course nothing was out of the ordinary. I'm not one to panic nor jump to conclusions so went to sleep. Meh. I'd figure it out in the morning.

Daylight brought the usual: breakfast for my husband before he went to work, copious amounts of coffee and the unusual - one of my daughters before the crack of noon during summer vacation. She wondered why I was in her room shouting her name at 8am. Nope. Not me.

I may need to crack open that notebook again.

I could get used to this - book launch in DC

My buddy, Nancy M and myself at Zaytinya

This is why I love publishing. Lovely people, great parties and intelligent conversation. We met Nancy Lambert from DK Publishing at Zaytinya in DC for cocktails and nibbles and saw the most gorgeous book on natural history I've had the pleasure to lay eyes on. Brilliant photographs and bite-sized nuggets of information that left me hungry to read the rest when it is released. The Smithsonian and DK Publishing did an amazing job! The book will be released in October 2010.

My girls are thrilled with the press materials we brought home in the swag bag and the teens have already claimed the notebooks to show off at school next fall. A fabulous way to spend an evening, thank you, Nancy!

Book launch parties and home repair

While I spent the last desperate moments searching for a sophisticated touch to my dress for the DK Publishing/Smithsonian book launch party for NATURAL HISTORY, my husband decided it was time to take down a bathroom wall. The one attached to the closet. With my dress in it. Now, he built the house so he knows his way around a hammer but obviously NOT the stress level of a humor writer invited to a launch in DC. Never having been to one before, I'm dragging him in his big boy pants and my friend, writer/editor, Nancy, along with me so I can appear witty and charming - at least to those two. Too bad I'm now shaking drywall dust out of the sea of navy blue perfection that was my dress.

Here's my question. Is it gauche to take along business cards? What do I do at a launch? Fondle the books then go home? Chat up people within reach? Okay, that was more than one question but do I do anything but nod appreciatively and take photos for y'all? Take cupcakes? Heeeeeeeeeelp!

S'cuze me, a toad just jumped in my lap. Time for summer...  VYOOOLEETTTEE!

Only dogs and Englishmen - summertime in DC

Every year, as I look out over the forest that makes up my backyard and watch the clouds snag on the trees this far up the mountain, I fool myself into thinking it will stay a temperate 73* all year long. Then, without fail, the next week will bring the steamiest, god-forsaken weather on this side of the planet. We're not talking Texas hot or Arizona death-hot, I mean the humid, nasty, you can taste the inside of your nose - hot. Ew.

The heat is non-conducive to anything but laying on the couch and moaning softly about how far the remote is, "Be a dear, Mama can't push the little buttons from this angle." The evil ones aren't buying any of it. They run outside to bounce on the trampoline and look under the couch for old juice boxes. So how does a writer with a to-write list an arm-length long get anything done? She suckers her teenager to do it. Okay, no. That's what I want to happen but what really goes on is I flop around a bit, stalk Workman Publishing on Twitter for a while and think up dirty Haiku for the Zombie Dating Guide's Undead Fred. That dude is twisted.

Wait, don't run away / I have delicious treats here / Eyeballs are yummy (G-rated for my childrens' delicate eyeballs. Mmmm, eyeballs)

How do you get motivated to write/work when the heat's so hot even Nicole Kidman breaks a sweat?

Image credit: vintagetease.com

New cover for HUNGRY FOR YOUR LOVE!

Oh. My. Goodness.

HOW fun is this? HUNGRY FOR YOUR LOVE will be released in print by St. Martin's Press in October and they unveiled the cover for the authors today. I'm running around in small circles in glee! Zombie cocktails at my house!

Everything Austen part deux

So I'm 44 minutes into being 42 years old and what better way to combat insomnia than joining another Austen Challenge? I joined the last one late so I'm getting in the groove with six Austen-inspired (or written) books, films or I think I can even sneak in some interpretive dance here.



Choices:

• Murder at Mansfield Park (gotten great reviews and the author is a peach!)
• Lost in Austen (film)
• Northanger Abbey
  
• Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls - currently reading
• Confessions of a Jane Austen Addict (another peach of an author)
• Lost in Austen: Create your own Jane Austen Adventure (I have to admit, this one has me intrigued. I'm seriously a nine-year-old at heart)

Hmmm, I wonder if I'll hold Undead Fred challenges one day? ;)

Author headshots - The Good, the Bad and the OH MY GOD IT'S STILL BREATHING

Who the heck thought this torture up? At some point, a professional head shot is recommended so a writer doesn't scare away readers with their HD-quality (think extreme closeup) shots taken by their eleven-year-old with a grudge. I asked my professional photographer/writer friend LaMishia Allen to take the offending shots next month so I'd have them ready to roll. (Yes. I like to be prepared. Did you see the 72 page proposal post?)

Colors:
She recommended clothing options in the range of white and/or black. Since puce was high on my list of color choices, I think I needed a little guidance. However, she gave me the option of a color to bring just to sass it up a bit for one shot. Now I'm stuck. I'm a fan of black/dark colors, what if I need to look [shudder] cheerful? Pink? Plum? Green?

Posing:
Good lord, I hate this part. Since hanging upside down from a tree probably won't be the serious author image I'm going for - though it would be awesome, can you imagine Stephen King swinging from a branch? - I'm reduced to not sweating too much in a studio because it will be July in Virginia and no one has that much face powder to keep me from being "dewy."

My advanced age has forced me back into glasses albeit sexy librarian glasses this time around. Lasik helped my distance but I'm squinting to see label directions. ONE time I overdosed myself on Midol and the whole freakin' world overreacts.

What's your advice for a good snap?

(No fair! This was taken at 11p after a day at the pool and chasing fireflies.)

Summertime blues

I promised myself I wouldn't go there and yet I still titled this post with a bad song. I'm sorry.

The girls are home for some god-awful amount of time before school starts again and my writing schedule is already in the crapper.

"Mooooooooooooooom! She hit me with a shoe just because I threw a broom at her head."

"I wouldn't have hit you if you hadn't panicked. It would have been a warning shot but you get all jumpy. And that broom hurt! It has bristles and stuff."

"That stuff was the Cheesenips you spilled in my bed."

"Whatever."

So, I'm hiding out in my office and humming to myself in an effort to drown them out. I have a column, a zombie shortie and a 5k horror piece due tout suite though the twitch I've perfected isn't getting me any closer to completing these pieces. I'm also tacking on two new website/blog re-designs, a book launch party in DC with the Smithsonian/DK Publishing next week and, oh yeah, turning 42 on Sunday just to round out my schedule.

How is your summer shaping up? Any good books in the TBR pile?

Pen names for persnickety people

When I was a child, I wanted to be called Peggy. I didn't know any Peggies, nor Margarets nor ever been close to having come in contact with a Peggy but for weeks I'd only answer to that moniker. Peggy is a fine name and since I wanted to escape the Cheerleader Barbie name that was stuck to me at birth I figured what could it hurt?

When I grew up and my writing developed, possible pen names started shouting at me for attention: Stella McNaughton (my great-grandmother), Lulu Finkelstein for my kidlit, Elizabeth [fill-in-the-blank, anything sounds good with Elizabeth]. But nothing stuck. As my maiden name wasn't usual *Isbell* but I was tired of spelling it for those who couldn't exorcise a vowel *No, not Isabell, dear* I looked forward to publishing under my married name. Graham. Do you have any idea how many flipping Grahams there are in the United States much less Britain? pfffffffftt.

So the search was on. First to go: Stacey. Sorry Mom. I've dallied with Piper, wooed Stella once more, flirted with Irelyn and even gave Penelope a go - but nothing stuck. I need one that reflects the real me. The real, redheaded badass (okay, I wrote bassass at first. So shoot me) that lurks underneath my formidable cupcake making skills.

How about Genevieve? Or... Mindy.

What names have you bandied about in your head to take over writing duties?

Six-word stories

Somewhere in the bowels of this blog, I've described myself as a sprinter. I love to write short pieces that hit hard and fast, leaving the reader satisfied with a nibble instead of overstuffed with superfluous paragraphs . While I love to read words that wrap themselves around me and pull me into a great story, anything over four pages describing a sunset gives me a twitch (author, you know who you are). I blame my short attention span for most of it but think it's a matter of personal taste. I live for the one-liners (as seen by Undead Fred's Daily Tips) that make me laugh, think or cry.

A story attributed to Hemingway has always stuck with me as the shortest, most poignant tale I've heard yet. "For sale. Baby Shoes. Never worn." What happened to the baby? Oh. So many questions, so much lost.

What's your best six-word story? The only rules are it needs to have the elements of all good stories: a beginning, a middle and an end.

Erma-tators

Ever notice that when things run smoothly, you forget to talk about it? An Army of Ermas is thriving. The writers are fresh and funny, the schedule hops along nicely with people lining up to step in if someone can't make a post date (which rarely happens) and editing is a breeze since my handpicked contributors can be trusted to be the professionals they are (THANK YOU, ERMAS!). We've had a few wiggles in the road in our first few months as we adjust to this new community of writers. Most of us have known each other for months if not years via the writing behemoth, Absolute Write, and we welcome our newer Ermas as they knock on the back door and bring us that cup of sugar we were missing to make the recipe complete.

If you haven't been by An Army of Ermas lately, drop on by and see what goofiness they're up to lately. I run a column about once a month when I can squeeze in and plan on expanding the site this summer - you know, when I have all this extra time with the five kids home...

Tattered and torn - Gothic romances & hidden boots

I'm in the mood for something full of ghosts and castles, women in diaphanous gowns that snag on tangled trees as they run from the horror of the night. Yep. Sign me up for a Gothic romance; I'm ready to submerge in a story that has nothing to do with the 21st century and everything to do with stone homes with objects (or people) buried in the walls. I'm fascinated with objects deliberately hidden within old homes, what do they say about the people who left them? Warding off evil spells? Hastily dropped garments before her husband walked in on her and her lover? What about the hidden rooms and crawl spaces that held secrets only to be discovered hundreds of years later? The mind boggles.

There's a story of my own that's bubbling beneath the surface, but before I sit to write it I'd love a recommendation of yours for a great Gothic story to get me in the mood! Whatcha got hiding behind your walls?

Image courtesy of flickr.com

Theme songs

I can't think of my current WIP without channeling Gaga and Bad Romance. Not only does that song reverberate in my head at least once a day, it sums up the whole zombie love train that I'm currently the captain of -- whooo whoooo. Sorry for that, too long of a day and not enough cocoa puffs this morning. Makes me stabby.

During NaNo, many writers have their soundtrack ready to go. While I can't write to music playing, I can't convince my brain to turn off its inner boogie so I hum Bad Romance under my breath until my kids throw something heavy at me to stop. If THE ZOMBIE DATING GUIDE sells, Gaga get her own dedication. I hope she'll make Undead Fred into a new tattoo.

Do each of your WIPs have its own song?

And why do I have an urge for a mayo sandwich? What the heck was that about in the Telephone video?