My daughter is a beautiful girl.  Now I know that every woman, even dads thinks that of their child but honestly Gina is a beautiful girl.  Gina is one of those rare young women who truly seems to be unaware of that fact but one thing she is certain of is that she is a female.
Now she was on her way to class yesterday morning and it was cold outside.  The type of cold that makes it hurt to breath.  We've all experienced it, you take a breath and the biting cold air you take into your lungs makes it seem like you're breathing in shards of dry ice.  Another words people it was flipping cold outside.
Gina is also a practical young woman.  She was dressed in a hoody with the little pull on thing you pull up over your nose and mouth, in her words she did look like the uni-bomber.  She had on a coat and all the other things that an intelligent person would put on to protect themselves from the elements.  The point being she was more interested in not freezing her butt off than catching the attention of some guy.  She also had two large bags thrown over her shoulders to carry everything she needed for her classes.  Now we all know that a lot of young women will sacrifice their health and well being to do the whole girly thing even if it means freezing their asses off.  Gina is not one.
While on her long trek to her class she passes two young men talking.  Gina didn't know these guys and really didn't pay any attention to the two morons.  She did however hear one ask the other as she passed "is that a girl?"  This has had her upset ever since it happened for several reason.  First the one thing if you see Gina in a normal situation believe me you can't possibly question whether or not she is female and I will leave that statement as is without explanation.
Now the first part that bothers her is that anyone would question her gender.  She is female after all and that would bother most women.  The second part and maybe this is the most important part to her was these guys thinking that because she was female she should have been dressing in a way that would draw their attention to the fact that she is a female.  Really?  Because she is a woman she is supposed to put aside her personal comfort and well being so that guys can identify her as the opposite sex and display herself in a way that they can check her out and not obstruct their view of her female form.  She then got to thinking about the women who feel the need to dress in a way, no matter what the temperature, to draw male attention all the time.  She is majoring in psychology so the working of the human mind is her thing.
When a guy goes out in the cold he generally dresses for the weather and no one not only never dreams to question their sex but also don't worry about whether or not a woman can check out their fine well shaped rear ends if they have one.  They can go into any situation no matter how they are covered expecting women to know they are men and regardless of what they look like they have something a woman wants regardless of how it's packaged.
She told me she felt like pulling her hair down, she has very long hair, pull the covering off her face, and unzip her jackets and pulling the jackets aside and turning to the two idiots go, "yes I'm a girl."  She didn't.  Knowing Gina if she hadn't been hurrying for class she might have.
I wish I could find these two idiots and slap them upside their head and give the a long talk and not a nice one.
Come on guys when it's cold outside appreciate a woman having enough sense to protect themselves from the weather and don't act like asses. If it's cold enough outside for you to cover yourself with many layers of clothing then it's cold enough for a woman to do the same thing.  If you do feel the need to comment on it do so in a tone of voice that doesn't carry to the lady in question.  Also remember not every woman feels the need to get your attention.  I'm sorry to tell you this but you're not the gift of God to women and most women wouldn't give you the time of day.  Even the women who dress to impress the opposite sex no matter the situation probably wouldn't give you a second look no matter what the temperature is outside.     


   

Tonight I have plans to go see th3e latest Star Wars movie.  My grown daughter is taking me and I'm both excited and apprehensive.  You see I have been a Star Wars fan ever since the first movie came out.  Go ahead and try to figure it out you know you want to.  I'm talking about my age.
When I say I'm a fan I'm talking about seeing all the movies, more than once, and even read more than one, and I own two light sabers.  So why am I apprehensive?  Because I was so disappointed in The Phantom Menace.  Now a lot of people will spout off about a certain character in the movie and various other superficial mistakes as they see them.  Personally I found Jar Jar Binks quite entertaining.  No, my problem was with the whole timeline thing.  Among the biggest was the fact was the age Obi-Wan Kenobi.  If you haven't thought about it then here is something for you o chew on for a while.  Either Jedi Knights age extremely quickly or you have to admit that old George screwed up on that one.  In the A New Hope Luke is sixteen and Obi-Wan is portrayed, quite beautifully by Sir Alec Guinness, as a fairly old man.  Yet if you do the figures here from his age in The Phantom Menace he would have been in his very mid thirties at the time of A New Hope.  Yes I'm a stickler for timelines.  Even if you can excuse other glaring mistakes in the fourth movie, and there were several, that is one you can't overlook.  No I'm not going to pull them all out because if you haven't noticed them then I have no intention of taking away from you any more about the movie than I just did.
Now we have the new movie.  Remember I stated that I've read a books or two that were set after the rebels defeat the empire and have also kept up with the story over the years.  I am interested in just where they are going with this movie.  I know from what I've seen of the trailers they have jumped ahead in time long after the birth of the twins and Luke meeting his red headed pain in the butt.  Yes it's been a long time since I read that book.
So yes I'm worried about how this will be handled.  I hope they can at least add two and two together and come up with four and not sixty four.   

People come in and out of our lives every day.  Sometimes if you're lucky a person stays long enough to bring you joy and comfort in times of need.  Sometimes however things happen that remove that person and although you feel the loss you have to let them go.
I have been put in that position now and I have to accept it.  For the time this person was a part of my life I'm grateful.  I hope she finds in her life what I have found in mine.  She has so much to offer the world and I hope she realizes it.
I know this isn't the type of thing I usually post but I know we have all experienced it at one time or another and we all have felt the loss when it happened.  Remember the good things and let them make you smile and know that somewhere there is someone else waiting to share a part of their time with you.

Yes book trailers again.  Remember me talking about old dogs?  Well old dogs find it even harder to let go of a bone.  What can I say?  This isn't to talk about them however it's to release one.  So here it is for the whole world to see, no I don't expect the whole world to see it, but if they do and I sell books to even a quarter of them I'll be a happy camper. 
You know the drill.  You just click on the link below and away you go.  Fasten your seat belts ,it's going to be a scary ride.  For you older ones, not what you thought I was going to say.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vBqYgsQCOg8

When I started writing I had no idea what all was involved in it.  You write a book or you don't.  If you write the book you either publish it or not.  If you publish the book then you either sit back and see if it sells or you do something to try and help it along.  This is where book trailers come in.
Now up until I started writing my only frame of reference as for as a trailer went was for movies and let's face it most of us did and some of us still do refer to them as commercials.  Anyway someone told me I needed to do book trailers.  Why, it's a book and not a movie.  Come on people get real.  It's not like you have little movie clips of your story line to put out there for everyone to see.  Well do they?
I decided to do some research and see how it's done.  It's a big whopping pain in the arse.  You either pay someone a fortune to do it or you wade through a bunch of software to do it your self.  Are you f'ing kidding me?  I'm an old lady and you want me to learn to do new tricks at my age.  Come on you've all heard of the old dog right?  Well darlings this old dog recently hit a big milestone in the old dog category, no I'm not sharing which one, that should put me well beyond the new trick stage.  Of course I could get someone younger and wiser, yeah right on the wiser part, to do it for me.  Did you miss the part about being an old dog?  Anyone past a certain age knows that when you ask a younger person to do something they might be quick to say yes but it may take them a flipping year to get it done.  Don't think so?  Ask anyone over a certain age and see what they tell you.  Oh the young whipper snapper means well and to them they are doing it in record time, after all the old person would take twice as long to do it because we older people just move too slow, but they have jobs, maybe a mate and kiddies, possibly school or any number of other young things that young people have to do.  After all we old folks aren't going anywhere now are we?  HAVE YOU LOOKED IN YOUR LOCAL CEMETERY LATELY?   We old folks are dropping like flies here.
Anyway back to the book trailers.  Now I could have asked someone to find an app and do it for me but I knew how it would go.  I refuse to pay someone an extreme amount of money to do it and probably get their idea of what my book trailer would look like instead of it being what I wanted.  Remember we old folks are old and not only are we slow but we are dumb when it comes to high techy techy things as Penny calls them on one of my favorite shows.  Yes I like Big Bang and I dare anyone to say anything about that.  I also like science fiction, Stars Wars and Star Trek especially and cut my baby teeth on horror and science fiction movies long before any of you youngsters and a lot of your parents were ever born,  Yes I'm that flipping old.
So what does an old lady do?  I went and found the app I thought would best suit me, downloaded it, yes I know how, and started constructing, creating, building or whatever you want to call it all on my own.   How's that working out for me you asked.   Well I downloaded the app on the tenth of January of this year and I already have two almost completed.  So far the people who have seen them have given rave reviews and all but one of about ten people are in the young whipper snapper category.  Am I going to post one for you to see here?  No.  Not tonight.  You see one of them I'm waiting on a very talented 'young' musician to get back with me for the melody he wrote for some lyrics I wrote.   It's been six months.  He has it done he just hasn't got it to me.  Too busy chasing fires I guess, also a small child, oh and my daughter Gina.  He might want to think about keeping momma bear happy because if momma bear ain't happy ain't nobody happy.  The other one needs a bit more tweaking but it's pretty much a done deal.
So my point to all this?  Well If you have never written a book and are considering writing one, or have started one be forewarned.  Writing the book I have found out, after five of them, is the easy part.  It's what comes after that's a bitch.

I'm upset.  When are people going to stop and think about things with a clear mind.  Someone posted the comment should woman be brought up on criminal charges if she files a false report of rape against a man.  Of course men are going yes, yes, yes.  I can understand their feelings on this but I wonder how many of them have been brought up on rape charges.
Rape is still something that is put in a dark corner of a room and people would like for it to go away.  There are still those who thing that if a woman is raped it has to be her fault, she asked for it, she was dressed in a way that was asking for it, she was drunk and she had next day regrets for her action, whatever but the fact is too many people still have some antiquated ideas about a serious crime.
Should a man be accused of something he didn't do?  Of course not and I would be one of the first to tell you someone should slap the crap out of a woman who pulled something like that but how do you make that call?  You can't in most cases.  Think about it a minute.  Coming up with a law that would target woman for filing a rape charge against someone would be a can of worms you don't want opened.  Right now it's hard enough to get women to come forward but if you put out more road blocks then more and more women are going to keep their mouths shut and not report the crime.  Being a rape victim is something can continue to victimize a woman for the rest of her life and now you want a law to singles out a woman regarding rape.  Not a good idea people.  There is is already a law in place to deal with this but putting one on the books that goes after women only not a good idea.
Here is a link that explains what is in place at this moment.
http://criminal-law.freeadvice.com/criminal-law/white_collar_crimes/false-police-report.htm  
A man falsely accused can also sue the woman.  So before you get on the making a law to persecute a woman find out what laws are on the books and check out what such a law might result in.  It is just the same song second verse.  The woman is lying and even if she isn't it was her fault and she should buck up and accept it.
 

I, or I should say we, are looking for a house to rent for either a long weekend or a week.  What are we looking for you ask.  We want something in the Smoky Mountain area that has the spook element to it.  We are working on finding a place for several writers to get together and compare notes and do some on site writing. 

Of course this is my idea of the perfect place.  If anyone knows where this is or who owns it we would love to have it for a week and promise we would take care of it like it was our own. 

No not another book.  About a year ago I made a necklace for Emma.  I finally finished Mary's.  It took a while to figure out how to do it because I wanted it to be true to the period in which Mary lived.
I settled on a wide woven silk cord with a sterling silver pendent with two moonstones.  I think the piece is true to the period and would be lovely on the right woman's neck.  Who is the right woman, well that remains to be seen.  Like Emma's necklace it will become part of a treasure hunt at some point in the future.  Mary's necklace like Emma's still has to take a little trip.  It has to travel to the area where the Blood Lines series is set.  So below you'll see pictures of the new creation.

The latest book went to the editor a few weeks ago and I'm not sure what to make of what I've heard.  I do know that she won't do another like it.  It appears it is living up to it's name Nightmare Express.
I don't know whether to be over joyed or to worry where my mind has gone.  Nightmare Express does venture off into some dark territory and I did have trouble with it while writing.  The stories pulled from me more than I knew I had.  No not saying I'm a great writer but when you dig too deep into your psyche you release the dark things you bury there.
I know, I'm a little on the dark side anyway so this shouldn't be anything new to me.  OK I admit it.  Let's face it when you can show me a picture of a wrench, some paperclips, and sea shells and I can tell you how to turn them into weapons it's a little scary.

I added a new post on my web site a little while ago and it didn't post.  I'm not sure why because my other one did.  Just checking to see if this one post.