Amie Stuart ~ On the Back Porch

Effing Prison Break ROCKED!!!!!!!!!!!  The Unit was pretty good.  I”m still not sold on Blood Ties though.  It better get better fast!  And Battlestar Gallactica is almost over.

Am I the only one watching DIRT and OMG–The Riches?  I love Dirt and I wasn’t that keen on it after Nip Tuck went off but I had to have something to watch–yes no really okay.  So for the most part it’s really good.  The Riches–an effing RIOT!  Not comedy riot but just twisted, guilty pleasure riot.  I love this show.  And WTF happened to the Closer? They show one new episode and it’s all repeats? WTH?

No spoilers please–I’ve got tons of shows I haven’t had a chance to watch yet.  I did watch Basketball last night and A  & M lost *Sob* *sob*

One of the best Supernatural shows os far–the kid was in tears and I was pretty upset myself.  How sad.
And the AI show to see who got kicked off–I have to tell ya’ll this because I already posted about it over on Scooper’s blog.  We’re watching AI and Lulu is singing and #2 (the 11 yo) says, “Lulu’s kind of hot for an old woman.”
WTF (esp as I was sitting there thinking this song sucks but she looks pretty good for her age.)
“Don’t laugh mom.”

“I wasn’t until you looked at me.”

Be gentle this is my first time.
*wow my blog ate half my list and I had to redo it. I bet I can come up with 13 reasons I’m pretty annoyed with this but I’ll spare you. Me and Mr. Linky are not getting along
Wow my blog seriously hates Thursday 13……screw this. I’ll try again next week.

Ok ok let’s try this again. Where’s Karen when I need her.

Thirteen Texas Authors to Try Before you Die (in no particular order)
1. Marsha Moyer - like ya’ll didn’t see that coming. One of the most amazing writers I’ve ever read–EVAH!

2. Sandy Blair–time travels–HELLO!!!!!!!

3. Candace Havens–Because she just is a totally cool rockin’ person.

4. Anna Jeffrey/Dixie Cash–Please with titles like I Gave You My Heart But You Sold It Online, what’s not to love?

5. Lisa Kleypas–do I really need a reason?

6. Pamela Morsi–I haven’t read her in years but her books are keepers

7. Sandra Brown– because, well, she’s Sandra Brown!

8. Rosemary Clement-Moore–because I love her book, damnit!

9. Rick Riordan–because he’s my son’s favorite writer.

10. James Lee Burke–because he’s freakin’ JLB.

11. Kinky Freidman–because he ran for gov’nor!

12. Kerrelyn Sparks–because she’s a doll and a great writer

13. Christina Dodd–even though she doesn’t live here anymore

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Man so American Idol was SOOOOOOOOO much better than last week and I have to say, I was really worried at the thought of the British Invasion.  Turns out I actually knew a lot of the songs chosen and enjoyed the show–lots of great performances.

Hailey–cute, great performance, perfect song, still not wowed though

Chris Richardson — Sigh (I need a drooley face).  He was awesome.  Sometimes one of the things that bugs me is the band is so loud they drown out the singer so acoustic worked fab for me.

Stephanie–seemed very nervous.  Definitely not her best performance.

Blake–another FAB job *sigh*

Lakisha — good but i definitely see what the judges were saying.  Her comeback about 50 years from now was a zinger though!

Phil–too shouty

Jordin–sold me where Lakisha didn’t.  I totally believed she felt every inch of that song and I think she gets the girl’s prize for the night.

Sanjaya–Simon’s comment said it all.  He practically screamed the entire song.

Gina–I actually liked her performance. I just wish she’d been a bit edgier

Chris Sligh–another good solid performance but nothing that screams “vote for me”

Melinda–again another great one but I didn’t care for her song.

The little girl who cried the entire night–needed a good slap.  JESUS H! People please!  I got really annoyed (as did the girl next to her) and one the radio this AM one of the DJ’s suggested she was a plant–where were her parents?

Today is ShelliBelly’s birthday!!!!!!  Go wish her a happy 30th! Ah to be that young again.
I’ll be over at Southern Fried Chicas later today dishing on….NO RACE 

So I wake up Saturday morning to an email from Mik, reminding me that there’s a book signing today for a friend of Candace Havens.  Candace told us all about Rosemary’s book at the last meeting and asked us to come.  So we went, after a mad dash through TGI Fridays (and leaving the Ohio/Xavier game just as that three point shot went off and time ran out = overtime).  And we got to meet Rosemary Clement Moore, who is just cute as a bug, but I digress.  My child acted like a complete ASS in front of Mik and I still can’t believe I didn’t snatch his ass up like a three year old.  Sad too, Mik’s 5 YO was better than my 13 YO.  Brat.

Anyway so I come home with this book and I start reading and watching basketball (HELLO it’s March Madness BABY).  Oh. My.  God.  I want Candace to be my personal book shopper from now on.  Prom Dates From Hell is the BEST BOOK!

Maggie Quinn, Girl reporter. Honors student, newspaper staffer, yearbook photographer. Six weeks from graduation and all she wants to do is get out of Avalon High in one piece. Fate seems to have different plans for her.

High school may be a natural breeding ground for evil, but the scent of fire and brimstone is still a little out of the ordinary. It’s the distinct smell of sulfur that makes Maggie suspect that something’s a bit off. And when realTwilight Zone stuff starts happening to the school’s ruling clique—the athletic elite and the head cheerleader and her minions, all of whom happen to be named Jessica—Maggie realizes it’s up to her to get in touch with her inner Nancy Drew and ferret out who unleashed the ancient evil before all hell breaks loose.

Maggie has always suspected that prom is the work of the devil, but it looks like her attendance will be mandatory. Sometimes a girl’s got to do some pretty undesirable things if she wants to save her town from soul-crushing demons from hell and the cheerleading squad.

BTW Ignore the Library Journal review up at Amazon.  Maybe I was just having too much fun, but I didn’t figure out the final twist until the end.  Maggie does do a bit of ass kicking but not in an unbelievable way and she also gets her ass kicked to boot.  She’s a super fun character to read with a great first person voice, and I’m a sucky reviewer but this is just a great fun YA read that didn’t feel like it was just for young’uns

And to top off my day A & M AND North Carolina (along with UT) are advancing to the Sweet Sixteen!

I’ll be sending out a newsletter today or tomorrow and I’m giving away an autographed copy of Sandy Blair’s A Thief in a Kilt!  (Yes, after the book signing I wish I’d gotten Rosemary to sign an extra copy for me!).  I’ve also got an interview with Steph Tyler whose first book goes on sale in April! And some coverflats to give away….so stay tuned!

I totally stole this from TNG!

I used the auto-sumarize in Ms WORD and had it sumarize 10% of my current wip.  Here’s what it picked up……
“Ameda.” 
“You missed me,” she breaths, a smile curving her lips.
“I’ve missed you, Ameda.”
“Micah,” she gasps softly, “never.
If I wasn’t careful, she’d pull out a handful.
Tears filled her eyes as the front door softly closed behind Micah.
Ameda had barely rescued them in time.

“Klaus, can you drive any faster?”

I call it home.  My friend Jerran calls it a gilded cage. 

***

WOHOOOOOOOO I hit page 50 (in like 10 days which is HUGE for me).  I wrote TWELVE pages to day (also huge) I lost 4 more pounds (in five weeks) also HUGE bringing the total to 22 and nearly 1/4 my weight loss goal. 

***

Can’t say I was too surprised to see Brandon go on AI but I’m sad.  I think he’s got potential he just never could seem to pull it together. 

(side note–I’m SO NOT a Diana Ross fan so last night’s AI was especially painful for me).

What is the chill factor? It’s that chill you get when something really touches you–for me it usually involves singing.  Phil, Melinda, Lakisha, Jordan all had chill factor.

If possible, Hailey just proved why she shouldn’t have made it to the top twelve, and for fuck’s sake SIT UP STRAIGHT WOMAN! You’ve got millions of people watching you and you’re slumped over like a freaking rag doll.  That dress was ugly.  And she was worse than Sanjaya (who actually wasn’t that bad last night–except for his hair and worse, the dangly earrings which I just hated.  Sanjaya has a problem many writers can probably relate too–he sucks at transitions.).

Brandon–what was that?  I’m still confused.  And saddened.  My heart hurts.

Chris–I liked his version but then see my note about not being a Diana Ross fan, same for Blake and Chris R (esp Chris R who I really like).  But I also agree with the judges that sometimes you really do have to let Motown be Motown.  I really liked Gina’s performance, I fast forwarded through Stephanies (Disco died for a resaon).

Overall an uninspired waste of my time.  Made worse yet by the fact that there was NOTHING ELSE ON!  At least DIRT kicked ass last night!

So we get home last night and I’m piddling in the kitchen, trying to get dinner started, and child #2 is pretending he’s doing the dishes and child #1 comes wandering in from the living room and says, “How come girls can say things like “I love you” to each other and hug but boys can’t?”

I say, “Well–”

Then #2 son (who is 11!!) interrupts me and says “Because girl on girl is hot but boy on boy is grossssssssss!”

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