It's MONDAY MONDAY MONDAY!

Ack. It didn't work. Was hoping if I was upbeat enough about the start of a new week I could trick myself into being excited. Nope. Not really. End of the week is always more fun.

Went on a mom/daughter date to see One For The Money. It was pretty good. My mom and I had a hard time getting past the fact that the "Ranger" they chose wasn't quite the hot hunk of man meat we were hoping for. He just wasn't the Ranger we knew. And Ramirez's part wasn't done well enough. But other than that it was satisfying!

My mom nagged me forever when I was a kid to read these books and only last year did I start. I'm still not very far in relation to how many there are, but they are the only books I've seriously LOL'ed at. So this movie was exciting to me (Anyone else wonder why it took so long to make?) and to see it with the original book-reading nag, even better. (My mom rocks. She knows I mean "nag" in the best possible way...).

Also this weekend, getting serious about planning this years Girl Trip with my most fabulous friends I've hung on to since high school. Every year we have a Girl Trip (usually to the beach). It's always been eagerly anticipated. Ever notice how nice life goes along when you have a yearly vacation to look forward to? If you don't, then you should get one, because it really does a world of good, no matter what's going on in life. And my girlfriends seriously kick ass. I love them dearly and only get to see them a couple times a year, so I'm stupid excited.

Crit meeting this weekend was very eye-opening to the old MS. I hate when I don't write things just because I forget my reader isn't in my head. Derp. It would be a lot easier if you all would just climb in, okay? Then I wouldn't have to go back and explain things better.

Lastly, the ladies at work and I do a BodyRock exercise 3x a week together and last Thursday we really killed it. I was so sore Friday I was doing a burpee and my legs just collapsed under me. Luckily no one was home for that. But I was so happy. Haven't been sore like that in forever. I know it isn't true, but I always FEEL more productive, workout-wise, if I end up sore. So that was nice. Gotta kick it up EVERY workout from now on, though. Gotta be smokin' for that bikini come Girl Trip time. (make no mistake, no matter how much you love a girl friend, there's always a little piece of you that needs to look hot next to your hot friend. And if you ARE the hot friend, you will always have those friends like me that hate you.;)In the best way possible, of course)

Did you all have a nice weekend? Hope so!

Happy Monday! See you cats around.

Funny Friday Is Where We Laugh At People

Haven't done a Funny Friday video post in a while, so here! These are funny! I love to laugh. . .at people. . .doing stupid things. . .

But, really, who doesn't?

Here are some Russians listening to Johnny Cash in a back yard with a cannon and a bunch of random questionable barrels. Good times for all, yes?


Okay, not so much laughing at a person here, but this bear is totally effing cute. As long as he stays behind the fence. . .

Would be the worst vacation ever if it was just like *waving bear* how cute! OMG HE HOPPED THE FENCE! DRIVE DRIVE DRIVE!

EEERRRMMM. . . awkward news moment?


Have you ever wondered what it would be like to tickle a penguin? No? Well. . .I'm showing you anyway. . .



So, apparently stealing candy is a big deal in Arizona. And the candy thieves. . . are pretty clumsy.


I get asked all the time about what it's like living with 5 cats. To me, it's a strange question. But, still, it's asked. A. Lot. And I finally can show the world EXACTLY what it's like to live with 5 cats. Ready?

All. Day.

Happy weekend, my friends!

Ode To The Importance Of Backups

I had a fancy computer
One I loved like no other
It was always with me
Even when I was under the weather
I watched Downton Abbey (season 2) on a slightly disreputable site
And all that got me besides hours of entertainment
Was a bug I could not fight
When all my computer knowledge was used up to no avail
And my virus protection was going insane
I had no other choice but to restore to a previous date.
Problem solved! Or so I thought, until a message popped up
It told me no documents had been harmed, which I thought a rather strange thing to say
And upon farther investigation found, indeed no documents had been harmed
But they had all been thrown away
Four years of document accumulation gone in the blink of an eye
But thankfully my panic attack lasted just long enough to remind me
I had a USB thing, Hurrah!
All hail the USB thingy!

This is my way of saying to you (and demonstrating my HORRIFIC lack of poetic abilities all at the same time!) to not wait for later. Back your shit up now, or else. It's not me threatening you, but all those a-holes out there that plant these little virus/worm/"malicious" URL bombs to destroy your entire life. Do they care that it took however long to write/perfect your work? Nope. They don't. Because they're a-holes. So go. RIGHT NOW.

Or be prepared to know the answer to this question: What would you do if everything you ever wrote was just gone?


On a more pleasant note,


Winner of My extra copy of The Marbury Lens goes to . . .

Random generator picked Gracielou

Yeay! So Gracielou, email me ce(dot)murphy(at)yahoo(dot)com with your address and I will send it your way!

Happy Monday!

Something Free! CONTEST CLOSED

Happy Friday everyone!

So...I meant to give away my extra copy of a book I accidentally ordered 2 copies of a few weeks ago in that other giveaway! Whoops.

BUT, all that means for you fine folks is someone else can win something! A book to be exact. It's by Andrew Smith called The Marbury Lens.

I have not read it myself, yet. But it sounds positively awesome! And I just got so excited to find it on sale I accidentally ordered 2 instead of 1. (And for you people like my husband who's first question was "didn't you review the order first?" YES, I did! I swear! But they only show a list of the books you ordered and since I ordered ONE TWICE it only showed up on the list once.) Anyway, it's all too much hassle to send it back and bother with refunds and all, so how about one of you guys claim it?

This isn't going to be a long contest, just because...I don't want to drag it out. SO, sometime next week, probably after Monday, I'll pick a random winner. (You like how I nail down times and dates for you guys? I'm just nice like that, I suppose.)

No hoops, just tell me you want it in the comments to be entered.

AND FINALLY, one of my all time favorite things about blogging is looking at my stats. And more specifically, looking at Googled phrases that got people here. 

So this week I have:

"sweet boobs" - I thank you. I think they're okay, myself. But I don't recall ever showing YOU...but thanks anyway.

"do I like cats or do I just like to talk about cats" - well, I think if you have to ask you must just like to talk about them. But me? I love cats AND talking about cats!

"sam winchester hot" - I have to agree. Sam Winchester is indeed smokin' hot. My mind thanks you for the reminder...mmmmm...

"artillery jokes" - ...you got me, I'm stumped. Okay... so this bullet walks into a bar and everybody ducks. Like that, only funny? I aim to please. HA! ZING!

"cats does this piss you off" - are you asking a cat what pisses it off, or are you wondering what pisses people off about cats? I can do both. Baby talk pisses cats off. But we still do it. ^_^ And I get particularly perterbed when my cat pisses on me. (he's done it a total of 3x in the past 2 years...while I'm asleep. In bed. Thinking of sewing that hole shut if he does it again...)

Hope you all have a great weekend!

The Creep-tactic And A Contest Winner!

You guys know I don't do book reviews. And I don't intend to now, but I do want to marvel at one authors ability. She is so unusually good. Not unusual THAT shes good, but the unusual way that she's good. It's Dia Reeves. And she is awesome at what she does with her books.

I read Bleeding Violet last year at some point and was amazed. It's creepy, and her heroine is . . . not exactly heroine material. She's HUGELY flawed and not all the time even in her right mind, exactly. But you can't help but hang on to her the same you would any other heroine. And that, I think, takes amazing writing abilities.

And here we are again with Miss Reeves, I'm reading Slice of Cherry and . . . wow. She's got me again. If you've never heard of this book, it's basically about these two sisters who enjoy murder. Not exactly the basic idea of main characters you want to root for. And really, I'm reading this not ROOTING for them exactly, but so entangled into their world and how they think and function, that it's hard to see another point of view. Yea, it's twisted and dark, but it's wonderful in those ways too. The way I find myself swayed, is so unexpected. (not that I'm plotting murder or ever intend to. . .)

I just think that takes incredible skill to create these main characters that are the opposite of heroic and make your readers love them anyway. 

So, last night I'm reading this part that just gave me the willies soooooooo freaking bad. (I would love to include that part because it's brilliantly, simplistically terrifying, but I don't want to tangle with the if I'm actually allowed to's and what not) I like to believe I'm not easily scared, but the truth is, all writers are in their own ways. Because we can't help how our minds wander. And I want to think I could write something this good, this creepy, and complicated. I donno if I really ever could! I'd freak myself out trying to write it!

Anyway, her books might not be for everyone (though I donno how they couldn't be!) but you want to see some incredible skill either way, you pick up one of her books.

But maybe you're saying "ugh, I don't give a flying squirrels fuzzy ass! tell me who won!". Well, I say to you . . . suck it. This is my blog, I do what I want.

. . .

. . .

Fine. . .

Random number generator picked out lucky number 9! And that was April Plummer!! Yeay!

So April, email me : ce(dot)murphy(at)yahoo(dot)com with your mailing address, what book you desire as your prize, and I will get it to you asap!

If you didn't win here, don't forget to check up on Abby and see who she had as her random winner!


Happy Monday my friends, and I will see you around the blogs!

Come Play The Triple F Game

Okay, it sounds like it's going to involve curse words. But. It doesn't.

Anyway, some of you may remember my Triple F game from last year. It's easy, there is no prize (but don't forget the enter the contest to actually get a chance or two to win something! The last call is on Sunday, so be sure and get yourself entered with me or Abby before then!)

For now, just take a break in your day to play a little mind fantasy game with us. Day dream all you like, I don't mind. That's the point, after all! Thing is, first round was pretty easy. Like would you rather be super strong or super fast and things like that. This round . . . not so easy.

(slightly offensive at times)

Now, I would have gone farther, more questions and all, but the longer I sat here and thought of possibilities, the more offensive they became. So in an effort to be sensitive...ish...we'll stop there with this round!

Oh but wait.

Plans for this weekend include a crit meeting on Google chat and then a whole crap load of sitting on my bum. There may be reading or T.V., query fiddling or something too. But mostly the bum sitting. Well, and working out.

Lots of people have asked me what I've been doing to get in shape, and the short answer is Bodyrock.tv which has become part of my every day life! It's wonderful, free, effective, motivational, helpful, and full of ways to make intelligent choices for yourself and your body. So, that's the short answer. I still have pizza (Pizzahut is my biotch) about once a week, fast food from time to time, and one soda a day but I've changed how I eat (moderation!) and cut down on all that junk food. Mixed with Bodyrock workouts, and that's it! And it's made a HUGE impact on my body and life.Trust me, my ass has never jiggled less. Matter of fact *pokes*, almost no jiggle at all anymore! Whoohoo!

Yeah, so . . . Happy Friday! Tootles.

Practice Makes Awesome

Don't forget to enter the contest!

So...I may have forgotten to write a post for last Friday. And I may not have even realized it until the day was mostly over and Abby texted me. Maybe.

Whoops! I suppose it will take a while to get back in the swing of it. But I'll remember from now on! Just takes one eff up to fix it, ya know? But hey, I don't mind admitting my dee-tee-dee moment. I have them all the time.

I often put two words together so it makes one word that just sounds silly. Sometimes + moment sounds like somoment. I run into corners in my own house. I trip constantly. I closed the laundry room door on my toe. (Who does that!?) I drop things CONSTANTLY. (got an Ipad for Christmas from my hubs. Dropped it 2 days later. Dented. *sob!*) So, forgetting a post is really just another day for me. But I am sorry!

Right now I'm working on my query for my new book. I have at least a month to get it done, but it's slow going. I'm no good at them. Takes practice, I know. And I've only ever done one before this, but still. I want to be good at it right now. And the synopsis comes next and I KNOW I haven't got the foggiest how to do that well. Why can't I just be good at it now? Download it into my brain and bang it out.

But, really, if you think about it, it's a good thing it takes practice to do things like that. I wouldn't be allowed to walk into a hospital and do open heart surgery.(right...?) If writing was as easy as people(non-writers) seem to think it is, everyone could do it. Everyone would do it. But it does take practice. Write a short story, write a novel, write a query, write a synopsis. None of it can be done WELL without practice.

So wherever you are in this process with your writing, don't get discouraged if you aren't perfect all the time right away. I can't widdle. I can't play the piano. I can't even do a cartwheel. But that's the best thing about life. You can always learn a new thing, no matter what it is.(especially now that we have the internet to teach us. You can learn ANYTHING on the internet, after all)

Happy Monday dudes. See you Friday, I swear!


P.S. It's my birthday tomorrow!

P.S.S. Really...Don't forget the contest!

I'll Toot My Horn, Mostly Glad To Be Back, And A CONTEST! CONTEST CLOSED

Hello!

You know what? I've missed you all something fierce.

I'll be the first to admit it...the break? She was nice. The first few...months weeks, I was loving the freedom. No pressure to get posts done, no guilt if I didn't see everyone's blogs that day. Was so lovely just to write and not worry about writing a post or answering emails. (and there was possibly some slacking off like little Jasper over there. A little bit. MAN I miss those pants...)

But as the break wore on, I started wondering about certain people here and there. And then the curiosity and missing you feelings got too much and I started blog stalking in my writing breaks.

And then I got news of this person getting a book deal, or that person with awesome news that just trickled down to me through FB and stalking after the big news was old news. Which made me realize how much I was missing.

You guys. . . I. Missed. You. Guys. There I said it. Can we cue the cheesy romantic music? Someone hand me a mic and I'll sing my love for you. No? Probably best...

The good news is . . . I finished my new book! Even had time to run through the first round of edits and broke it up into chapters! (I don't write rough drafts in chapters. I just write one big ass document and break it up later.)

The crit girls start on the first section this week and hopefully within 2 months I'll have some of the best crit notes around to make it bright and shiny! And by the early summer at the latest is my query goal. Fingers crossed.

So, even though I missed you guys something fierce, stalked quite a few of you, and couldn't wait to get back to it by the end, I did accomplish great and wonderful things. Ta-da! And it even has a freaking title. I won't assume anyone remembers, but I'm a total ditz when it comes to titles. But this one just popped in my head one day. As did. . .the 2nd and 3rd book titles. . . but more on those later. Much later. If ever.

But this was so epic for me, I had to text Abby right then and there. After I pulled over safely so as not to endanger myself or other drivers, dogs, pedestrians, etc. of course. . .

Speaking of Abby. . . She's back today as well! Hurray! Since we BOTH accomplished loads on the break(and both missed our one year anniversary blogging to accomplish them), we decided since we finished roughly around the same time, we'd make our bloggy comeback at the same time too.

ALSO, we are having a contest to thank you guys for hanging around with us and coming back!

It's easy-peasy. All you have to do is leave her and/or me a comment in our first posts back as well as telling us what book you're dying to read that you haven't gotten around to. And if you're picked at random, you win that book! Simple, right?! You have 2 chances to win--either with her or me, so that's a bonus!

(Go here for the lovely Abby Minard!)

US only (sorry!)

We will announce each of our winners two weeks from today (Monday 16th) so keep an eye out for your name!


In other quick catch up news: I have lost a shit ton of weight on purpose and still working on it, I have not decided on the next book to write, I still have 5 cats and a Netflix love bordering on unnatural, and I already have a to-be-read pile(s) next to my bed bigger than this time last year. 3x bigger. 2012? Startin' off good!

What's new with you guys? And I'm so freaking serious, I want updates on everything I might have missed between July and now!

See you all around the blogosphere!