Carey Burns

You may recall back in February I slammed the truck door on my right index finger resulting in a broken, disgusting-looking finger.  Well, today my husband fell victim to the driver's door slamming on his right index finger.  It isn't broken, but he said some rather...spicy things and I laughed.  (after asking if he was okay)  See, he has made fun of me and my boo-boo (aka Cobra) finger for over 3 months so now, it is my turn. It makes me wonder though, is it just that we're both clumsy or does the truck really have it out for us?  Did it not like going to our particular hometown?  (my accident happened in that town and his happened when we were getting gas to go to that town)  Either way, we got a laugh from the gals at the bagel shop when we shared our tale and even got to have the owner regale us with her story of getting pooped on by a bird yesterday.  How that figures into slamming your finger in a door, I don't know...but i...

Well, I've finally taken a moment to get back to the blog, so here I am.  Not much has changed in my absence--I'm still struggling with the slimming down and still pouring my soul onto paper (or keyboards).  I think those are two constants in my life.  Anywho... I was one of the lucky winners from the EHAG giveaway and I have the CUTEST Halloween plaque and then I won a copy of Flush Fiction, thanks to William Todd R.D. Wood ! This is the luckiest I've been in quite some time.  When I wasn't "getting lucky" this month, I've been reading.  A lot.  Way more than I probably should have been, but it was good.  I finished Suzanne Robb's "Z-Boat" as well as Richard Marsden's "Traveling Tyrant Casual Fridays" and I slapped up a couple of reviews for them on Amazon.  Eventually, I will add them here.  It wasn't all fun zombie and science fiction, no, it was reading a first-hand account of Coronado's travels and learning abo...

I didn't get to wear a tiara Saturday, but I had a candy buffet for my birthday and it was awesome!  Pixy Stix, Snickers, Fireballs, Smarties, Dove eggs, Butterfingers, Whoppers...and that ain't the half of it!  We still have two huge bowls filled with sugary goodness and I hope they never run dry.  Next year, I'm doing it again! It was so hard coming back to work after a week off, but I've been keeping myself busy non-stop so the days go by quicker.  I've been encouraged to write more teasers about our programs and activities and it feels good to be creative at work.  I wish more of my colleagues had the same encouragement.  Imagine what we could accomplish!

I think my 20K challenge for this week was a bit...optimistic.  I neglected to factor in real life, which tends to get in the way of writing a lot.  Anywho, I have made progress by finishing a short story, nearing the end of another, and creating a scene in my vampire novel where my main character meets...wait for it...Vlad Dracula.  The real, historical Dracula, with impalements and all.  I've been doing quite a bit of research on Hungary and Romania and well, it all just seemed to fit.  We'll see how it rolls in the final draft, of course. For a while I've been wanting to make PMC Silver jewelry but lacked a kiln to fire it in.  Since there's no kiln in my future, I enrolled in a continuing education class and made 2 pendants plus a bead.  I get to pick up the fired pieces next Tuesday and brush/polish them.  Once I get them home I will definitely post pictures--even if they look like silver crap. Taking the class has given me a few inspirat...

One day a year I get to be the Queen and that is today.  38 is looking great and there's cake in the fridge.  They call it "Cake for Two" but let's get real.  It is "Cake for Me" and I'm just biding my time until I can snarf it all down. I worked on "Hunting the Boogie Man" all day yesterday and shall get back to it after lunch.  There will also be some action on my caterpillar story and I'm thinking of changing the title.  "Forced Migration" doesn't quite fit now that I know why they were moving.  I've slapped up a couple reviews on Amazon:  one for Hater by David Moody and another for Black Corners of a Blood Red Room by Patrick Rutigliano.  Both great reads--you should give them a try! Now, to enjoy a bottle of Coke and hang out with some vampires.

This is my birthday week and staycation all rolled into one.  My goal for this week is to write at least 20,000 words.  I will work on my NaNo novel "Hunting the Boogie Man" and finish up a few other projects and if I break 20,000 words, I will wear a tiara all day on Saturday.  If not...well, the guilt will be suitable punishment enough. My story "Being Neighborly" has been accepted into the upcoming anthology "Zombies Gone Wild" by Collaboration of the Dead.  I'm particularly jazzed about this because the story was slated to be in a different anthology but was killed.  A zombified story about zombies...rock on. Okay, better boogie if I want that tiara!

I've been sitting here for thirty minutes, touching the keyboard for a few seconds then pulling my fingers away like they're about to be smacked with a ruler, only to put them back again and repeat the process.  This is the hardest entry I've made, deciding whether I want to share with you (if there are any of you) that my father died last Monday.  It has been an exhausting week of reliving my entire 37 years with him in my head and even though I keep telling myself I cannot change the past, the core of me refuses to believe it.  Someone I love said "I wish life could have been different" and I wish it too.  The rational side of me knows it all made me what I am today but I still keep on wishing. Someone I didn't know said he talked about me all the time and I hope I made him proud.  I loved him, for good or bad, and miss him.  My niece said "I can't stop thinking of him" and that's how it should be, no matter how much it hurts because to...