Entertaining post going on at Nobody Writes It Better today, regarding the horribly embarrassing moments small children put us through. If you have kids, I’m sure you’ll be able to relate. If not, you might decide to go childless forever.

Assuming both are fully loaded, complete with black leather interior and moonroof (woo hoo):

Or

??

P.S. I really want this:

…but maybe after a few more sales.

Judging by the hordes of people that crowded around the hospital in LA yesterday, I’m hardly the only one thrown for a loop by Michael Jackson’s sudden death. And I don’t give a hoot about Hollywood–I don’t watch TV, barely touch movies, and couldn’t care less what celebrity is doing who. But I love music, and this guy is an icon whether you’re a fan or not.

I was in the car a few minutes ago and a radio station was playing old MJ hits, which was kind of fun until it became depressing. If you haven’t danced to some 80’s Michael Jackson, you haven’t lived. Thriller was the only record album I ever owned before cassette tapes became commonplace (oh, Lord, I think I just heard my back creak). I feel bad for the kids who don’t know what this picture is or what they missed.

Farrah fans are probably saying the same thing about me.

My sophomore release day is official–For His Eyes Only will release on November 3. Yay!

1. Eagerly begin the week with a page quota for each night, certain you’ll have the story ready to send to your editor by the weekend.

2. Get even more excited as you read all the way through page 100 making very few changes and realize this manuscript is pretty damn good.  Picture the enticing blurb and awesome cover.

3. Feel the first pangs of discouragement when you reach the inevitable point in the middle where you’ve placed a scene that is contrived, boring, and does nothing to advance the plot–in other words, useless, and there go several hundred words.

4. Change your frown to a smile when an ingenious idea for a replacement scene strikes, and it is SO much cooler than the original–plus it boosts your word count. Yay!

5. Drink an extra cup of coffee as you come across another stupid scene you’d completely forgotten about. More cutting. Ouch.

6. Breathe easy for a few minutes while two chapters of kick-ass climactic scenes pass.  Then get all the way to the last chapter and discover that something really, really, really important to the final scene doesn’t make sense according to a plot point that happened back on page three.

7. Throw something.

8. Go for a drive. Think happy thoughts. Just don’t toss your nice laptop out the driver’s side window directly in the path of a Mack truck. Return home and do some yoga, even though all the deep breathing and relaxation in the world won’t get your bleeping manuscript completed and turned in.

9. Grab a pen and paper and do some old-fashioned brainstorming until you’ve scribbled a few ideas that actually make sense.  Hey, this could work for the ending…

10.