It’s been more than a month since I’ve blogged, I’m ashamed to say. A lot has been going on in my life!
Writing: I’ve been toiling away on Book #7 of the Project Justice series for Harlequin Superromance. This book features Hudson Vale, a character who played a pivotal role in FOR JUST CAUSE. The book is due Oct. 1 and I am waaaay behind schedule; keep reading to see why. I attended the national Romance Writers of America conference in Anaheim, and I found a new agent! I’ve been without representation for almost three years, and it’s nice to have someone in my corner again.
Vacation: My husband’s family takes a yearly bicycle trip. This year we went to New York state, cycling along the towpath of the Erie Canal. (A couple of years ago we did the C&O Canal (through Maryland and W. Virginia) and this was somewhat similar. We rode for 7 days, from Buffalo to Syracuse. Totally self-supported so we had to carry all of our stuff with us. And–get this–I made all the arrangements this year. I was stressed out the whole trip worrying that I’d messed up reservations. It was quite the logistic nightmare, finding bikes to rent, places to stay, and how to get the bikes back to Buffalo (urg, don’t even ask!). But it was so much fun. We only had one little snafu, when a motel simply wasn’t where it was supposed to be, as shown on both my guidebook map and the GPS. We had to ride about 5 miles farther, which was no big deal except that Max, my husband’s cousin, had a flat tire. But everything else went well. We saw some beautiful countryside, visited several museums and a wildlife refuge, ate some wonderful food. One of the best things about cycling is you get to eat a lot! You’re on the bike for several hours each day and it burns a lot of calories. We also visited Niagara Falls, my first time, and I loved it. Although we walked over the “Rainbow Bridge” to Canada for a visit, and to see a different view of the falls, I liked the American side better. Instead of a bunch of hotels and restaurants, there’s a pretty park with hiking trails, and you can get very close to the falls. We took the tourist boat, Maid of the Mist, to get a close-up view.
Acting: I continue to go out on a lot of auditions. Mostly for student films and very low budget features, a few internet TV shows. I have booked a few jobs. The best one was for a student film where I played a really angry modeling agent. I got to scream at this poor model. The other kind of fun job was for an Epson printer commercial–footage that they put up on their website so prospective customers can take a “tour” of a printer. Unfortunately, though I spent half an hour in make-up, they ended up shooting only my hands. 😦 And finally, I have a job on Monday as an extra for a real TV show you might have heard of, American Horror Story (it’s on FX). They needed an actress with super-short hair to play a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp. Oh, and one other modeling job, next weekend, for a photographer’s portfolio. He does beautiful work so I’m excited.
Home Renovation: I have finally hired a contractor to build us a back porch. We just signed the agreement with the architect ($3,000+ just for that, gulp). Haven’t done much on the house since finishing my office and the front yard. But soon I’m going to tackle painting the living/dining room. On Sunday, the plan is to clear some space out in the garage and move my mosaic materials out there. Right now they take up the whole dining room.
Jury Duty: Spent a week on a truly horrible, disturbing criminal case. I was an alternate juror, so I sat through the entire trial, though I didn’t deliberate. I was relieved the jury found the defendant guilty on all counts.
That’s it. I keep saying this, but I’m going to try to post my blog more often. I used to blog every single day. How did I do that?
It’s great that you are getting ideas from this piece of writing as well as from our dialogue made at this time.