Bargain hunting

I'll admit it.  I'm a cheapskate.  I hate paying full price for stuff.  So I'm always on the lookout for a bargain.  And finding one makes me all kinds of happy.

Last weekend I went looking for a new duvet cover since our favorite Ikea one had several huge holes in it.  I went to a couple of different stores, both having sales on bedding and found a few really nice duvet covers at 50% off.  "hmm..."  I thought.  "50% off $160 is $80.  That's okay."

But I kept looking around and finally spied some duvet covers that were on a bottom shelf, covered with various pricing stickers.  They were the end of a line, a gorgeous purple (my favorite color) and reduced from $89.95 to... you won't believe this... $17!

You'd better believe I went home happy!

Today my friend and I went out to our favorite second-hand clothing store to hunt for bargains.  It's a huge, barn-like place out in an industrial area.  It's stuffed full of all kinds of clothes, most of them fairly tacky or worn out, but if you take the time to really look, gems can be found.

Like today.  I found a pair of pants from one of my favorite designers, near new, for $7.50.  I was looking at the same pants in the actual Ricochet store just a couple of weeks back and lamenting that I just don't have $200 to spend on pants.  Score!  They're about half a size too big, but I don't mind.  They just sit well on my hips and are very comfortable.

I came home with 6 things, including the Ricochet pants.  Total spend?  $58.30.  So I'm a happy girl.  And because I saved so much money, I think I'm going to go out and buy these.

Do you like finding a bargain?  What's your best bargain purchase?

Changing the way I read

I've been very slow to climb on board the e-reader wave.  Partly this is because until last year you couldn't even get a Kindle in New Zealand.  But mostly it's because I love books.  Real books.  I love the weight of them in my hands, the way they smell, the physical sensation of the paper against my fingertips.  You don't get that with an e-reader.

I love bookstores and libraries and can spend hours wandering around, pulling books out here and there  to see if they might be things I'd like to read.  And I mainly read in the bath which is not a great place to be with an e-reader, especially if you're like me and often fall asleep in there.

But times change.  I got an i-Phone earlier this year, and the first app I bought was Kindle.  And it's changed my life.

I used to panic about getting stuck somewhere without a book to read, so I always had to carry a bag big enough to fit one inside.  My work bag is heavy anyway, with a laptop and everything else in there already, and if I happened to be reading a 500 page book at the time, it made my shoulders ache.

I no longer have that problem.

I still go to the library every two weeks or so.  I still have a real book to read at home and in the bath.  But I also always have a book loaded onto the Kindle in my phone.  It means I have something to read on the bus on my way home.  I have something to read at the pool while my kids have swimming lessons.  I have something to read if I'm waiting in a queue at the post office.  In fact, I never get stuck without something to read.  If I finish the book I'm reading, I just buy another one.

Yeah, my credit card kind of hates me now....

Are you an e-reader fan or still clinging desperately to paper books only?

Something new

I started a new book last night.  Sidewalks in in the hands of my readers at the moment and to keep myself from going bonkers while I wait for feedback, I decided to just dive into a new story.

This one is something different for me.  It's historical and kind of a western, with romance thrown in.  I'm calling it Between Paradise and Nowhere.

I actually already wrote this story a couple of years back.  I planned it to be a category romance but it never really worked.  I keep thinking about the characters though, and about a month ago I started wondering what might happen if I rewrote it as YA.  The idea wouldn't let me go, so here I am.

While I'm essentially following the same plot outline, I've changed one of the POV characters to make the love triangle (or square) stronger.  I've also made the characters younger, which changes the dynamics a little.

After one night's work, I'm feeling quite good about the project, but who know's how I'll feel in three weeks...

Have you ever reimagined a book you've already written?  How did it work out?

Cabin Fever

I love writing challenges.  I've shared the results of some here before, most notably 100 word stories with no repeats.  But here's a different one.  For this challenge you have to use an many song titles as part of your story as possible.  And to make it even trickier, see if you can make them all from the same artist!

Here's a little story I wrote using song titles from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds.  The titles are in bold and underlined.  I think I managed to squeeze 20 into this one....

CABIN FEVER

Lucy stretched a, slender leg, tracing the tattooed python that snaked its way from ankle to thigh.  She breathed in the burnt-hair smell that emanated from the tiny bar heater sitting in the corner, struggling to warm the frigid air.  The canvas tent smelled old and musty even though it had been standing for four days already.

The circus were stuck in Tupelo; had been for three days now, the entire region blanketed under fifteen feet of pure white snow.  It was unseasonable to say the least, and Lucy was getting bored.  She stretched the other leg, this one featuring a Chinese dragon that wound its way up and up, finishing beneath the tight fabric of her sequinned leotard.

“Deanna,” Lucy whined.  “I’m so bored!  There’s nothing to do!”

“Practice your act,” Deanna called back, giving Lucy an upside down grin, her back bent at an extreme angle, legs splayed in a perfect split.  Bending back even further, she let one of her feet touch the ground and pushed herself back into a standing position. 

“Bravo!” sighed Lucy as she watched Deanna contort her limber body.  Behind her was a poster advertising her act.  “Christina The Astonishing” it read, and showed Deanna in this same impossible position but dressed in a red satin bikini that barely covered the bits that needed covering for decency’s sake.

“Hey, Joe,” Lucy called to the carny who was sitting on a pile of mattresses just inside the door, pulling wings off flies.  “I’m bored.  Entertain me.”

“You’ve got a bad case of cabin fever,” Joe muttered through clenched teeth.  “Why don’t you go out for a while? Check out the loom of the land?”

“Maybe…” Lucy hesitated, eyes moving fearfully right and left.  “I had a dream, Joe.  A bad one.  And you know…”

Lucy’s dreams were enough to strike fear in the stoutest hearted men.  Rarely were her night-time visions wrong.  Circus folk are superstitious at the best of times, and after so many of Lucy’s prescient dreams proving correct, when she announced she’d had a dream, well, everyone listened.

“What was it?” Deanna stopped her contortions and came over to the mat on the floor where Lucy lay.

“It was horrible.” Lucy shook her head and sat up.  “I was back home, by the river, where the wild roses grow.  Suddenly a shadow fell across me, blocking the sun.  When I looked up, there he was…”

“Who?” Deanna was leaning forwards, hands clasped under her chin.

“Blind Lemon Jefferson!” Lucy choked, shuddering at even uttering the name of the singer who had lost his mind at a performance three years earlier, opening fire on the crowd in the tent before turning the gun on himself.  “It can only mean something bad is coming.  I’m frightened.”

“So am I!” Joe admitted.  “You’ve never been wrong before.  This can only be an omen.”

“Oh!” Deanna shivered in her leotard, reaching for the sweater she’d thrown across a chair.  “I hope it’s nothing like what happened to John Finn’s wife!”

A sudden noise from outside the tent sent the three occupants rocketing to their feet.  It was a pounding sound, muffled somewhat by the thick snow.  Before any of them had a chance to move, think or say a word, the side of the tent bulged inwards.  Seconds later it exploded as the body of a young horse ploughed through the ancient canvas, all scrabbling legs and flying hooves.  Lucy squinted in the sudden brightness of the sun reflecting off the snow.  The horse stopped just in front of her, snorting and blowing through distended nostrils.

“Shhh…” Deanna stepped forward and cautiously touched the horse’s nose, flinching as it tossed its head away.

“Careful,” warned Joe, coming around to stand by the horse’s left flank.  “This one’s Sorrow’s child; he’s not much more than wild.” 

Deanna shrank back against the far wall of the sagging tent, eyeing the horse warily.  Joe stroked the horse’s heaving side with a gentleness that was at odds with his size.  Taking the mane in one hand, he turned the beast.

“You’ve got him!” Jack’s shadow filled the rent in the canvas and the horse trainer easily slipped a bridle over the calming nag’s head and ears.  “Everyone alright?”

 “Oh my Lord! We could’ve been killed!” Deanna breathed.

“I know,” Jack shuffled his feet as he led the horse from the ruined tent.  “I’m sorry.  He got away on me.” 

Lucy and Deanna gathered their belongings and stepped through the torn canvas into the cold.

“What now?” Lucy asked, peering around the circus grounds, deserted in the thick snow.

“There is a town,” Deanna said slowly, gesturing northward.  “Perhaps we ought to find a motel room.”

“Bring it on!” Lucy grinned at her friend.  “No stupid horse is going to lay me low!  Onwards!  To the city of refuge.

Have you ever tried anything like this?  How'd it go?

Twiddling my thumbs

In an effort to preserve what remains of my sanity, I'm taking a week or so off from writing.  And it's making me snaky.

I'm not used to having all this spare time.  What do I do with those pockets of 30-50 minutes?  After the kids go to bed, what am I supposed to do with the time before my bedtime?  When I wake up at 5.30am and stumble to the computer, what do I do?

I'm trying to immerse myself in spring cleaning.  I spent 2 hours on my younger son's bedroom yesterday.  Today I attack the older one's.

But once I've done the cleaning, what do I do?  You know what?  I think I'll just have to go and start a new book.

Are you any good at relaxing?  Any tips for someone chronically unable to do it?

One of those days

There's a great children's book I read when I was a kid, and that I've enjoyed reading to my kids: Alexander and the Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.  It's about Alexander who's having one of those days when absolutely nothing seems to go right.

Today is one of those days....

When I got up it was hosing down with rain.  Absolutely bucketing.  Which meant the kids couldn't walk to school.  Which meant trying to get my partner organized early enough that he could drive them on our way into town for work.  On the way back from dropping the kids I realized I was supposed to feed a neighbor's cat, so we doubled back to do that.

When we got into town I fed coins into the parking meter outside the cinema only to discover it ate my money without registering any time.  My partner called the number on the meter to get the code that would waive a ticket should we get one.  He stayed on hold forever, then they hung up on him.  He called back, and after eons, got through and received the code.

I got inside the building to discover that the roof had been leaking and there was a lot of water on the floor, the chairs and all over some lights in the theatre.  I called the landlord and was summarily dismissed (as usual).  When I went out into the back theatres, I discovered on was not just wet, but completely flooded and stank like a swamp.  I organized for the carpet guy to come and clean up the mess and rang the landlord back to inform him that he'd be getting the bill.

It's not even noon yet.  The carpet guy hasn't shown up and my first session is supposed to be at 1pm.

What else can go wrong before bedtime?  Have you ever had one of these days?

Sigh of relief...

It's done!

Yes.  I finally finished my second draft of The Sidewalk's Regrets.  I'm realistic enough to know that's not the end of it, but as of last night, the manuscript is winging its way to two of my beta readers who I know will find all the funky spots and places the story makes no sense.  I can no longer see those things.

The last two days of writing were a dream.  I had to entirely rewrite the ending (about 4 chapters) and it was like the words were already there, embossed on the inside of my eyelids.  All I had to do was type fast enough to catch them as they scrolled by.  I love days like that.  I wish they came more often.

So now I'm in that weird limbo where I'm not sure what to do.  I have two potential projects to work on next.  I could rework my historical story which I have some good ideas for, or I could start planning out the new idea I have which is still just a sketch.

Or I could just take a break for a couple of weeks, but I'm not that great at taking breaks.

What would you do?  Do you jump right into a new project when you finish one, or do you take a rest first?