Return To The End Of The World (Disc Two)

Thank goodness I finished the rewrites yesterday. Because, almost on cue, this afternoon UPS, the darlings, delivered a brand new DVD set of the legendary Irwin Allen's Production of The Night The Bridge Fell Down! (! mine; Irwin Allen was much too tasteful for that kind of punctuation).

For those of who don't commit this blog to memory, and don't care to use the search box (which I used just now, helpful little thing it is), here's the first entry on the great Night The Bridge Fell Down Disc 2 Saga. You can read the comments and follow-up entries if you so choose, but if you don't care to, the short version is I was watching The Night etc! and disc 2 didn't work and Mr. Cavin left a comment suggesting watching Disc 2 on my computer, and I did, only I got to the part where Barbara Rush was having conniption fits trying to climb down the bridge to safety and the disc stopped right there, leaving me uncertain whether Barbara Rush and her three stalwart companions made it to safety.

Naturally I was distraught. Maybe not as distraught as Barbara Rush, but darn close. I called the WBShop, from whence The Night etc! had come, and wept copious tears while telling them all this (except the part about the blog and Mr. Cavin, holding that in reserve in case I needed to shame them into doing the honorable thing),and they very nicely said send the darn thing back and we'll get you a new one. I took them at their word and a mere month later there it was.

DVDs from the WBShop don't have chapters (many of my books wouldn't either, except my publisher makes me put them in), but you can skip around at ten minute intervals. I had no way of knowing how many minutes I needed to skip, but as soon as I saw a shot of Barbara Rush weeping and whining, I restarted the DVD. Maybe I missed a minute, maybe I saw the same minute twice. Who knows. All I know is I made it through to the end and, with the possible exception of the Desi Arnez Jr. character, who I still don't remember seeing dying, I know who lived and who died, and I am greatly relieved.

So was Barbara Rush, who wept and whined for quite a while climbing down that bridge, and her false eyelashes stayed on the entire time.

Now that's what I call drama!

Should I Do Rewrites? Or Should I Go To The Movies?

I'm opting for rewrites. I'll be finished sometime this afternoon.

But I recommend going to the movies for a million other people. Because the thirty second book trailer for This World We Live In (which I think is actually the thirty second book trailer for Life As We Knew It) is going to be playing at scores of movie theaters throughout America. Here's the list (alas, none of them are near me):


RGL1290 Grant Plaza PA-Philly 9 screens

Philadelphia RGL 1314 Main St. 6 6 screens

Regal E-Walk 13 RGL1929 42nd St. 13 screens

Movieland Yonkers Central Park Ave. RGL1232 6 screens

Chicago Showplace 16 RGL621 16 screens

Anaheim Hills 14 RGL1003 14 screens

LA Live Los Angeles RGL697 14 screens

Thornton Place with IMAX Seattle RGL1937 13 screens

Berkley 7 (San Francisco area) RGL1172 7 screens

San Francisco AMC 0434 Van Ness 14 14 screens

Boston (Manchester) RGL1930 13 screens

Dallas AMC0150 Valley View 16 16 screens

Washington DC RGL1551 Gallery Place 14 14 screens

Atlanta RGL1309 Perimeter Pointe 10 10 screens

The trailer will play on 179 screens. The video will play for 2 weeks, 7 days a week. It will play at least one time, usually two, before the movie starts. Most movies play at least 4 times in a day.

The video should play approximately 716 times a day; 5012 times a week; 10,024 total for the campaign.

Please be aware that the video receives prime placement as well. It will play right before the movie trailers start.

Oh heck. Maybe I'll drive down to Yonkers and take in a movie. But I'd better get my rewrites finished first!

Here's A Link To Good Morning America

Where This World We Live In is described as "The ultimate dystopian; very exciting read."

And the book looks exceptionally fine!

Good Morning America Recommends This World We Live In

Good Morning America is truly a Good Morning for me.

Thank you ABC!

For those of you who haven't seen today (Thursday's) Good Morning America because you're in a different time zone, they talk about This World We Live In (and recommend it!) on camera, around 8:45 AM.

What a wonderful way to start the day! Well worth three !s.

Should I Do Rewrites? Or Should I Go To An Adam Lambert Concert?

I say both, although I'll have a lot more fun at one than the other.

Scooter says neither. He votes for nap.

The rewrites are coming along. My editor didn't ask for that much, and what's slowing me down is that I've been rewriting things she didn't mention. As you may recall, from the little I've revealed about Blood Wounds, my heroine, Willa, has two stepsisters. I've been rewriting material about her stepsisters' mother, a character who is never seen in the book, but who certainly has an effect on the story. Like most of the other rewrites I've done, I started at the back and then had to rewrite an earlier section. Bah, bah, and double bah. Most likely I'll finish by the July 1 deadline, but it'd be easier if I stuck to what I was asked to do and not what I know will also make the book better.

My writing life as a lot easier when I wasn't so fussy. I hold all of you responsible. I don't want to disappoint you.

Oh well. I'm sure Adam Lambert feels exactly the same way, that he doesn't want to disappoint me (or at least all I represent). Tomorrow I'll be going to my second and a quarter concert, once again going with my friend Pam (although she didn't go to the quarter concert). The concert is at Foxwoods, and there's an exhibit of Titanic artifacts we plan on seeing. When the concert ends, we'll drive to our friend Janet's and spend the night there. So it's going to be a long wonderful rewrite free day.

Alas, I can't say the same about today!

Should I Do Rewrites? Or Should I Look At Pretty Flowers?

Rewrites can wait.

I went yesterday to the St. James Church Goshen Garden tour with my friend Pam, and we had a wonderful time. There were many beautiful private gardens to explore, and a fabulous lunch to devour.

I didn't take any pictures of the lunch, but that was because I was way too hungry to admire it visually (although it was a very pretty buffet with an exceptionally pretty buffet dessert table).

I love flowers and I want to take good pictures of them. It took me a long time to realize that if I take pictures of short flowers, I end up showing more dirt than flower. So I now limit myself to big tall flowers, beautiful landscape. and the occasional chair.

This picture of red flowers and white fence is my brand new screen saver, and it's a very summery way for my computer to say hello to me.

And look. Scooter loves flowers too, just as long as they're upholstered!

Should I Do Rewrites? Or Should I Nap?

Like I had to ask.

Actually, it's the need for rewrites that make me want to nap. I got the edited manuscript and editorial letter for Blood Wounds yesterday at 6 PM, and thinking about making changes (and a rousing 5 AM game of Purr On The Neck) cost me a good night's sleep.

My editor actually wrote the letter (and most likely sent off the manuscript) June 8. In fact, my agent informed me today that she'd gotten a copy of the letter several days ago. I'm loathe to speak badly of UPS, but for whatever reason, they weren't speed demons about getting it to me. Maybe UPS didn't want me to have to work, in which case, UPS remains my friend. Except that I'm going to have to work anyway, and now I have a bit less time.

Fortunately for me, my editor likes Blood Wounds a lot, and made very fine, and probably not too taxing, suggestions to make it better. You may recall, if you commit this blog to memory (and if not, why not), I had some problems with my heroine attending school, when none of the book has to do with school. My editor picked up on the fact that my heroine, lovable though she is, has no friends, or at least none with a name.

Between work induced insomnia and cat induced wakefulness, my heroine now has a friend, who thank goodness (and thank me) is away for the school year. But whether she's around or away, she'll have a name (currently it's Rachel, but I may look a little more deeply at Popular Baby Names for alternates).

I haven't actually looked at the manuscript yet, just read my editor's letter a few times. And, truth to tell, I've read the parts of the letter about how good the book is a lot more than the parts of the letter that indicate where work needs to be done. Maybe I'll do that on Sunday. Tomorrow I'm going on a garden tour with a friend, and Monday I'm having my mammogram and, if I'm in the mood, a knee x-ray (I'm considering calling Monday National Radiation Day and getting them both done, although not simultaneously), and if I'm not working Saturday or Monday, then there's hardly any point to working on Sunday. Except for the fact that Thursday is my next Adam Lambert concert (when you weren't looking, I added another one in Albany in August), and Friday will be devoted to recovering from Thursday, and the following Sunday I'm going to my cousins' 50th anniversary party, and my editor would like the manuscript back by July 1, which would have been a heck of lot easier if UPS had done its part.

All of which is even more reason to take a nap right now!