Monthly Archives: August 2012
Romance by the letter A.
Alluring Amorous A
Remember Sesame Street. Well…. Today’s romance post is brought to by the letter A.
With romance on my mind, let’s look at a few random romantic words that start with the letter A.
The letter A seems like an obvious choice. After all, it includes such romantic giants as Amorous, Adore and Arouse. What a nice trio.
Amorous, which my little Webster pocket dictionary defines as (1) fond of making love, or (2) full of love. Both sound good to me. And I have to say I’d rather be full of love than full of a lot of other things I can think of, including baked beans. As much as I like bake beans, being full of them is definitely not a good romantic idea.
And of course, any good romantic Adores being Aroused.
Okay, moving right along, there’s always Affair, as in a romantic Affair. Let’s just hope it doesn’t include breaking any marriage vows.
And then there’s Agony. As wonderful as romance is – it does seem to have the ability to cause great Agony as people Agonize over their beloved. Agony, Angst, Agonize. All part of strong, tragic romance.
How about Ambrosia, the food of the gods. If I was out on a hot date, I would think Ambrosia would be a good thing to order, if I could only find a restaurant that has it on the menu. If anyone out there has a good simple recipe for Ambrosia, please tell the Cheesecake Factory, because they make just about everything and I love eating there. Nice and yummy.
Not to be left out of any self-respecting A list is Anatomy – which is the study of the human body, the huMAN body. Yes, one of my favorite classes at romance school.
Also, Anniversaries are usually considered romantic, except when someone forgets. But if you can keep your calendar reminders updated and current – you’re golden. Keep the Anniversaries dates and be sure to serve Ambrosia. Sounds like a good time to me.
And now I will leave you with one more A word – - - Appendage. Let your imagination do the rest.
Love you all. Enjoy always, T
Time Enough For Love.
I just finished reading Time Enough For Love by Suzanne Brockmann and I really enjoyed it.
I really enjoyed the premise of the story.
It’s about a man who travels back from the future in a time machine of his own creation to try to stop his younger self from inventing this very same time machine, because when he does create the time machine all hell breaks lose. All he needs to do to stop this impending disaster is convince the love of his life and his younger self to fall in love three years before it’s too late. If he’s successful, he will no longer exist, if not, all hell breaks lose, as mentioned above.
Confusing? A little, but not too much. Ms Brockmann handles the story line fairly well, considering that she claims to be a confirmed card-carrying trekkie. I wonder if she watches The Big Bang Theory? (My favorite show since the end of Lost.)
I’ve also just finished reading the classic, Time and Again by Jack Finney, which is also about time travel – go figure. You would think I like this stuff. (answer: Yes) In Time and Again, New York city in the 1880′s is a major character, not just the setting. You can tell the author really did his research and fell in love with the old New York.
I think the lure of living another life in another time is what makes time-travel stories so popular. That, and the ability to go back and explore history, if not perhaps change it for the better. But who’s to say that any one change will really create a better tomorrow? Each change creates consequences of its own. There’s no way to know how a seemingly minor action of today will affect tomorrow.
So, as I was saying in my last post, since we seem to be locked in the present, all we can do is get up every day and do our best, or in the words of Carol King: You’ve got to get up every morning with a smile on our face and show the world all the love in our hearts, then people gonna treat you better, you’re going to find, yes you will, that you’re beautiful as you feel.
Enjoy now, for if you can enjoy now, you can Enjoy Always, T
But it doesn’t hurt to dream about tomorrow and yesterday. 
Doing my best, as best I can.
I’ve recently sent off my manuscript for Moonlight Dreams to an editor I like and admire. I’m hoping it will be well received. Hell, I’m hoping she loves it so much she wants to pee her pants.
But then, I took another look at it, again, and I’ve found ten (or twenty!) errors. You know, little things like misspelled words, typos and such, and I think Crap, Crap, Crap, why did I do that?
And then I sit back, take a deep breath – to keep for throwing up – and remind myself that what’s done is done. And it all okay. God still loves me, even if no one else does, TYG.
If the editor likes the story enough, she’ll want to work with me. If she doesn’t (like the story) the lack of those ten (or twenty) typos isn’t going to change her mind. At least I hope not.
I mean, really, if the likeability of my story rests on the absence of any and all typos, I’m toast, or perhaps moldy old Swiss cheese, turning green and full of holes. Woe unto me.
But! If she really likes my story, and can get past my tendency to make a few mistakes, (God bless my human soul) then we’re golden. Every day I get up and try to do my best. Some days are way better than others. Some are like sucking lard through a straw. Some days I shine. And every day is another chance to try and do my best. Not Mark Twain’s best, or Suzanne Brockmann’s, or Monica McCarthy’s, or so&so XXX’s best, [fill in blank with your favorite and bestest author]. I can only do my best.
And if I love myself and the world around me – the world will love me back. So here’s to loving me and loving you. Cheers and Enjoy always, T
Grand Vacation Get-Away.
I’ve been away on vacation and it was grand. I traveled to Southern California to see my family and friends and went to the Romance Writers (RWA) national conference. All of it was grand.
I spent a lot of years living in So Calif, from the time I was in high school to about 13 years ago. Wow, have I really lived in the SF Bay area that long! My how time does fly.
Going back to the LA area was a harsh reminder of the traffic and freeways. I arranged to meet my son at the Orange County fair and it took me nearly an hour to get from Anaheim to the parking lot at the fairgrounds. Crawling would have been faster as all those cars inched along trying to get to the same place at the same time. I finally had to park outside of the fair, it was just too darn crowed.
But once inside with my son and his girl friend I had a grand time. We ate all the bad foods, drank beer, and went on the Ferris wheel, my one BIG ride for the night. We watched some folks getting tossed around on one of the more outlandish rides and I figured that wasn’t for me. Didn’t want to risk losing all that greasy fair food I’d eaten!! Not fun.
I also attended the RWA conference and had another grand time. So many wonderful, talented writers gathered together to discuss their craft and love of the written word. I pitched a book I’ve finished, I call it my fairytale, Moonlight Dreams. I think it went well and I’ll be sending the MS out to an agent and editor. I hope they like it, but honestly, I had such a grand time writing it, I’ve got to believe it will do well.
Life is grand and any time I can get out on the road to travel is destined to be a good time. Friends, family, good food and a beer at the fair. Who could ask for anything more?
Love you all, Enjoy Always, T
